Dark and Stormy
by psiten
Summary: A full-scale pirate rebellion in Sorata's home fleet finds the Dragon of Heaven in a sea battle, Kamui in a race with an elite ninja team for a legendary artifact, and Fai... on a date? Gift fic for Beltenebra. "15 Mokona" Pirates vs. Ninjas AU #5. Kuro/Fai (Tsubasa) main pairing -more in later chapters- with a prominent xxxHoLic/X/Tokyo Babylon/MKR/CCS crossover backdrop.
1. Mai Tai

_**DISCLAIMER:**__ All CLAMP stories were created by CLAMP. Characters have been adapted without authorization or approval, and I am making no profit from their use._

"Dark and Stormy" is the fifth story in my Pirates vs. Ninjas alternate universe, "Fifteen Mokona on a Dead Man's Chest". **Reading the previous stories is not required.** That said, if you would like to read the stories in order to take advantage of the continuity, details are on my profile page.

* * *

**[Mai Tai]**

_Mix equal parts fresh lime juice, VSOP Jamaican rum, and a fine dark Jamaican rum in a shaker._  
_Combine with half a measure orange Curacao, and a quarter measure each of orgeat and simple syrups._  
_Add two cups crushed ice, and shake it like you mean it._  
_Glass it, drop in the lime, and garnish with mint._

The shadowed room danced with reflections of fireshine from the globe of blazing light hovering over Hikaru's hand. She cupped it near her chin so the glare shining upward lit her face in that spooky way everyone used to do at summer camp. Eagle tried to pretend he wasn't laughing, but since she was sitting on her boyfriend's lap she could feel every rumble when he suppressed a giggle. "_And so..._" she whispered, "Kouryuu gave up searching for the cats in the house, and ran to the demon prince Kokuyo for help... only to find that Hari and Ruri had been _in his throne room the whole time_!"

She blew out the flame in her hand, leaving the room totally dark. Not for long, though. A second later, Lantis walked in from filling the bird feeder on the porch and opened the blinds. Sunlight flooded the kitchen, glinting off the pots hanging from the wall and leaving her more somber boyfriend a tall, dark shadow at attention by the counter. Neither of her lovers were as subtle as they thought they were. "Is that the one you're telling for the ghost story contest?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"I think so." Alcyone, the queen of the hook-handed lunatic stories, had always taken the top spot before, but no search parties had been able to find her after she'd run off - six months gone, come August. This year it was anybody's game. "I wish I had time to find a new one. But after how writing one last year went, I thought I'd try a classic. It could work!"

Eagle burst into cackles and squeezed her around the waist. His white-blond hair danced around the laugh lines at his eyes as he shook his head. "Hikaru. Telling the best ghost story means making your audience afraid - and you can't do it as long as they can hear how scared you're _not_."

"I didn't sound scared?!"

"Not a bit, hot stuff. Not a bit." Hikaru shifted to her feet to let him up from the chair, watching him stretch his shoulders over his head as he gazed out the window. They'd moved just outside the castle walls, to this house in town, so Eagle could have a view of the bay and a dock for his little superboat, and she never got tired of the way he smiled when he looked at the waves. "You're a tad disadvantaged there, you know. I'm not sure you've ever felt fear."

With a pout, she sat back down on the edge of the chair. "Sure I have! You scared me with that thing your zappy machine did when you kidnapped me. I couldn't even stand up half the time." Almost nothing she'd run into before or since was more annoying than how Eagle's tech could rip your brain apart, turn your legs to jelly, and twist your stomach inside out. "How was I to know if I could get away, or if Umi-chan and Fuu-chan would have to come in after me and maybe get hurt?"

Lantis sighed, letting Eagle settle against his chest, but answering the blond man's bright grin with a scowl. Hugging Lantis's arms around his waist, his eyes twinkled as he asked, "Now, be honest. Did you _even for a second_ doubt that all three of you would get out of there safe and finish your mission? No matter what I did to you?"

Shaking her head, she settled back in the chair. "You didn't even have me chained up! Well, not _really_."

"And maybe, if you ever can't see a way to win, you'll have been scared enough to tell 'The Demon and the Phantom Cats' believably enough to win a contest. Maybe I should tell it with you? You could be the monsters, and I could do Kouryuu's parts." He turned his head up to look Lantis in the eye, letting his bottom lip tremble as his eyes opened wide and his voice started to shake. "_Did I... did I just see a cat's shadow running up the stairs?!_" It sounded so fake, Hikaru's giggles wracked her till she couldn't breathe.

"You're worse than she is," Lantis answered.

Neither of them had a chance to try again. While their laughter was still ringing off the kitchen walls, a shower of black butterflies swirled over the table. A maze of lights formed a glowing disc over their wings, Mistress Yuuko's face hovering in the shine. The smoke from her pipe swirled up out of the image, circling her projection in a gray halo. So much for dinner tonight. If the head of the Ninja Union had decided to call, there was a mission and no time to waste.

Hikaru pulled her glove onto her hand and summoned her armor from the jewel on its back, then stored it away again. Perfect working order. "How may I be of service, my Lady?"

"Oh, there's just a little trinket I need you to pick up for me. Umi and Fuu have a map, and they'll meet you at the harbor. You'll need to sail through pirate waters to get there, of course, but I persuaded the captain of the_Haliotidae_ to take my three precious wards where they needed to go."

"I understand." The butterfly mirror scattered, fluttering off on the wind. A few birds chattering outside were the only sound in their little kitchen. She didn't feel any heavy worry in the air, but neither Lantis nor Eagle liked missions where she got sent off without them. Boys could be so high-maintenance. Hikaru looked up at her boyfriends and laughed, "I guess we're going out to sea. Do you think we'll be back in time for the festival?"

"That's up to the sea," Eagle answered. "The FTO could get you anywhere and back in two days tops, I'm sure, but-"

She shook her head. "You know Lady Yuuko. She never _explains_, but she's always got a reason." Hikaru ran over to give him a goodbye kiss, then boosted herself up on the counter to kiss Lantis, too. "Wish me luck!"

The broad-shouldered man sighed, burying his nose in her hair. "Make sure you don't need it. We'll be there if trouble finds you."

"Or you find it," added the blond man at their side. "Now get out of here. Low tide'll hit if you don't hurry, and the flood will start rolling in. You know what they say... Time and tide wait for no man? Ninja girls aren't exempt."

"Okay, okay!" She leapt off the counter into a run. "See you later!" she called, waving from the door, and dashed down the sunlit streets toward the docks. It'd been years since one of her missions had put her on a boat! Would it be a trading ship, she wondered, or a private yacht? Or maybe a fishing boat! She could help with hauling in the nets while they sailed to wherever they were going!

Hikaru had a perfectly worked out dream in her head of how they could manage all the nets on the boat at once, just bursting with fish, by the time she spotted Umi-chan and Fuu-chan already on the pier. Umi-chan was flipping a long, blue sheet of hair over her shoulder and rolling her eyes while Fuu-chan was leaning over to talk to someone. But Hikaru could barely see the boat! That couldn't be the _Haliotidae_, could it?

Oh, no. Of course it wasn't! As she ran, the figure in the water came out from behind the pole. Ferio, in his little dinghy as usual. Maybe he'd finally gotten commissioned on a big pirate boat somewhere and wanted to make good on his promise to steal Fuu-chan away? Hopefully he wouldn't be too mad if he found out she was a ninja, not a schoolgirl. But rules were, she couldn't let him find out, so that probably wouldn't come up anytime soon.

"I know it's not much," Hikaru heard him saying, focusing in so she could hear from the other end of the dock, "... but I want you to have it. As my promise that someday, I'll make all your dreams come true."

So he probably hadn't gotten that commission, then.

Fuu-chan clutched his present under her chin between her folded hands, smile unchanged on her face. "My dreams? What dreams would those be?"

"Oh, for the love of God..." Umi-chan muttered.

"Umi-chan! Fuu-chan!" Hikaru called out. "I'm here!"

"Ah, Hikaru-san!"

"Hikaru! You're late!" Her blue-haired friend grabbed her around the shoulders and pinched out both Hikaru's laughing cheeks. "What're we going to do with you?!"

An old man leaned over the rail of the schooner docked nearby. "If that's all of you, let's set sail before we lose this wind!"

"We'll be right there!" all three girls called together.

But as they walked off, Ferio grabbed Fuu-chan's hand and stopped her. "Wait. That's the ship you're sailing on?"

"That's right," said Fuu-chan. "The captain agreed to take us for our field trip, since it's on his way."

"But the _Haliotidae_'s going to-"

Umi-chan pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. "To Chizeta. I mean, we know all about the giant octopuses, and how there's pirates there, but there's monsters and pirates here, too. And it's really the closest place to study comparative volcanic geology."

Oh. So that was their cover story. Good to know.

Ferio didn't look quite so calm as either of her friends, nor as calm as the _Haliotidae_'s captain, who was probably more afraid of Lady Yuuko than of anybody else. The young man just stood there for a second, eyes gaped and mouth twitching so it set the cross-scar on his chin dancing. "Does your school know Chizeta's just declared itself in rebellion?! You could be heading into a pirate war!"

Sometimes, Hikaru really wished she could tell people she was a ninja, and could handle little messes like pirate wars, but she doubted Ferio would find ninjas in the mix to be at all reassuring.

~/~

The haze from Karen's pipe lingered at the top of the war room, nestled in the heart of the _Dragon of Heaven_ where the rocking of the waves tried and failed to budge the lead markers Sorata had spread over the south seas map. Smoke didn't burn Kamui's eyes anymore, whether gunpowder or tobacco, and the swirling shadows it left on their plans below did no harm. They simply made the pictures of the ocean seem to shift and live as if it were real water. Even down here at the Equator, with volcanic beaches instead of the gentle slopes of home or the rocky cliffs of nearby shores, the water was the same terrain he knew. The flagship of the Takifugu pirate fleet, the pride of the seas, didn't usually ship out to personally quash rebellions, but _most_ 'pirate rebels' were lone shark layabouts who came crawling back as soon as they realized how annoying it was to negotiate new shipping contracts. Chizeta was organized, and they meant it when they said they wanted to expand their territory out of their little islands.

That was bad enough, but of course it wasn't all. Whatever extra message Princess Kotori had sent to Fai this morning, the Pirate King hadn't shared. The blond had barely said anything, and that wasn't like him. His silence as he slowly peeled an orange from the dish next to the map was starting to give Kamui permanent shivers.

The gunnery mistress curled a strand of red hair over her ear and tapped the tiny bowl at the end of her long pipestem on the blue field marking the Chizetan Sea, spirals of white curling up to join the smoke clinging to the ceiling. "We'll need to be at least this close to their fortress for our big guns to breach the walls."

"I'm hopin' it won't come to that," Sorata answered, and slid the figure for the ship two inches back from where Karen had pointed. "We're talking before we shoot." After thinking another second, he moved the figure for the _Dragon of Earth_ five inches behind the miniature _Dragon of Heaven_. Far enough to keep the hell ship out of sight from the land, even if it came out for air. One sight of the Barrows-Guard on her decks would stop any chance of negotiations, that was for sure. The rest were no better. Everyone on that thing was a murder waiting to happen (except Fuuma, and maybe Kakyou). "Anybody got a problem with that, him and me can settle it outside."

Nobody argued with Sorata's declaration that they'd talk to the two princesses first. The captain was the only one here from Chizeta himself, but it wasn't like these were _ninja_. Pirates had manners. They might get out of this without wasting a shot, if Sorata could talk them down. Sorata could talk people into the damnedest things, and before you knew it they'd be smiling and nodding when you asked them to do one-handed handstands in waterfalls.

At least, Kamui was pretty sure Sorata had done that to other people. Not just him.

Murmurs of agreement from Aoki and Yuzuriha. More silence from the Pirate King, Fai D. Fluorite, and another bite of orange. The pile of peels he'd built up through the whole session would spill over onto the floor any second. Whatever he was thinking, this had better not be just another game to him.

Arashi had already said everything she planned to say, and Subaru was standing back in the corner as always - shooting worried glances at Fai every few minutes still. Worried enough that a glimmer of obvious concern peeked through the eternal gravitas that Kamui had rarely seen wrinkle before, so Subaru had to be lying when he said nothing was wrong. He'd been doing that for almost two weeks now, since that fucking ninja had shown up and Fai had let him get away after a parlay for 'favors rendered'. If Kamui didn't know better, he'd have guessed it was because Chizeta had seen that _brilliant tactical decision_ as a signal of weakness to exploit, but the hushed whispers their navigator had been directing at His Mysteriously Royal Foppishness (which Fai had been ignoring) had more to do with a brightening star Subaru thought might be a comet (not that anyone else could see it at all, or fathom why he'd be worried about a comet).

Kamui would have given his favorite hat to live in a world where Subaru thought nothing was wrong except for Chizeta's princesses, Tarta and Tatra, declaring war.

"Hmm..." Fai dropped an orange peel into the dish holding down the nearest corner of the map. He scanned the landscape and rubbed his hands, and then he moved every person's figure from the beach back to the ship except for his own and Sorata's. "I think a low-profile chat would go over better, don't you?"

Kamui grabbed his own marker out of Fai's hands and dropped it back on the beach. "Are you insane?!"

Fai smiled, and pursed his lips as he cocked an eyebrow.

"Don't answer that," Kamui corrected himself. "We can't send two people! Tarta and Tatra are the best fighters in Chizeta after Sorata!"

The Pirate King pushed Kamui's marker toward the ship again. "So since I'm going _with_ Sorata, that's not a problem."

"They could have an ambush!" When he tried to shove his miniature back towards the beach, his finger hit table and he nearly stubbed his nail against the map.

Wouldn't you know, Fai had nabbed it faster than the eye could see, and now he was holding it out of reach on the other side of the table, flipping it through his fingers. "We'll be _fine_!"

"Yeah, don't worry Kamui!" With a laugh, Sorata ruffled his hair. "I'll have the flare gun. If anything nasty starts, you guys could get there with the ship in two minutes flat to make 'em regret it."

"Besides, I've got a _special_ job for you." Fai picked up two more tokens from the board and placed all three on top of Mt. Saijaan, the volcano at the center of the island. "You're going here, with Yuzuriha-chan and Saiki-kun."

All the serious faces in the room looked up from the map to stare down the blond, and Yuzuriha almost choked on the sip of rum she'd been drinking. "Wait, what?" their sea-mistress asked. "Is there something going on besides, you know... the potential war? I thought that was why we were here."

"Why would there be something going on? I just thought, as long as we were in the area, there's something I want you to pick up. It's not like a little rebellion is the end of the world."

Fai did have a magpie way of running after shiny objects. Kamui might have believed nothing special was going on, if only it hadn't been for Subaru in the corner. Their navigator's mouth tightened, and now there were no quick glances anywhere. He kept his eyes fixed on Fai without bothering to see where he'd pointed on the map. Subaru knew what this was about.

Well, then, maybe this 'special job' wasn't complete bullshit. "Fine," Kamui growled. "What do you want us to go get?"

With a laugh, Fai picked up another orange from the table and spun it around in his hand. "Oh, then I guess you haven't heard, _Kamui-chan_. You must know how two of the Dioscuri's orbs went missing once upon a time."

Kamui stiffened, his grip tight on the table. Less because Fai was prattling on about fairy tales like the Six Divine Warriors, and more because the King had called him 'Kamui-chan'. No one but Princess Kotori called him that. Whatever he was out to find, then - and it couldn't be one of those communicator orbs because the Dioscuri _weren't fucking real_ - but whatever it was, it had been the reason the Princess had contacted them this morning.

"Yeah," Yuzuriha answered before anyone could notice Kamui hadn't. "When the Heavenly Twins died, their orbs shot into the sky like falling stars, and no one knows where they fell. At least, that's what the legends said."

The Pirate King traced a lazy finger around the meandering borders of the volcano on the map. "Well. Word is, we can get to one of them from here. If you're up for it."

"Maybe if you stop screwing around and tell us what you're really after!"

"But I just did, Kamui!" Fai whined with a phony pout. "I simply _must_ have that orb. I _promise_, the fate of the entire human race depends on it."

"The Six Divine Warriors. Are. A. Myth." Grabbing the orange out of Fai's hands before he could start eating it and refuse to answer because gentlemen didn't talk with their mouths full, Kamui snarled, "Somebody made them up. Like somebody made up the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and Santa Claus."

"You know, next time Santa stops by for dinner, I'm going to tell him you said that, and he's not going to be happy." Around them, everyone who was involved in a real mission bustled about, cleaning up the map and markers, murmuring about munitions and miscellany. Kamui grabbed the whole bowl of oranges so Fai couldn't take another. "You know, if you're that unsure about what's real and what's not, you could just ask Seishirou. He's supposed to _be_ one of the Dioscuri, isn't he?"

"The Barrows-Guard would say whatever he damn well wanted, whether it was true or not. _Kind of like you!_" As if there was anything he needed to know badly enough to ask that bastard about it. "People call Arashi the Fata Morgana, but that doesn't mean she's a fairy castle floating on the horizon. Yuzuriha's not actually a Black Cat. _I'm_ not Death itself! _That man_ doesn't need to be a demon in human form who _stole immortality from the stars_ for everyone to think he's earned the name!"

Kamui couldn't meet Subaru's eyes while he said it, although he could feel his friend's hurt twisting under the silent, unchanging shell he showed the world. What he'd said had needed to be said, and the one time Kamui had tried to say he was sorry for speaking his mind about the hell ship's navigator after he'd learned how Subaru felt, Subaru had told him, '_Don't_,' before the apology could cross his lips. And that had been the last of that. Fai, on the other hand, made more than enough of a show of his wounded pout that a fool could tell it was only an act. "You think Seishirou would say that when it wasn't true?! What, do you think the Snow Fox didn't captain the first pirate ship, too?! And you'd probably say the Dimension Witch didn't really found the Ninja Union!"

"If six warriors with that kind of power were running around the world, never aging and never dying-"

"Four warriors," Yuzuriha added, boosting up over the table to steal back one of the oranges. "The Heavenly Twins got killed, remember? Only the Snow Fox, the Dimension Witch, the Barrows-Guard, and the Dreamseer survived at Abaddon Falls."

He could feel the energy of wanting to punch Fai in the face crackling around his clenched fist like lightning. "Four, six... whatever! Someone would have noticed them! If the Dioscuri were real, _where are they_?"

"Gosh, Kamui. You may have a point there." The asinine fop turned to Subaru, who'd dropped his face into his hand and was shaking his head at the ground. Clearly he wasn't the only one who thought Fai was too ridiculous to bear. If Subaru was running out of patience, then matters had gone more than far enough. "Maybe they've retired to some tropical island," the blond mused at the Sumeragi, "with cabana boys to wait on them hand and foot. You don't think that'd get boring after an eternity, do you?" As soon as a growl started rumbling in Kamui's throat, Fai looked back and grinned. "Tell you what. If you can beat me in Rock, Paper, Scissors, you can go to the negotiations with whoever you want, and I'll go to the volcano."

Kamui stuck out his fist with a glare, silently counting 1, 2, 3 while they both threw down, and stuck out his hand flat for Paper.

Fai waggled the two fingers he'd held out for Scissors, the sly grin on his face never changing. "Well, isn't that just the worst luck?"

Swiping his hat off the table, Kamui stomped off toward the door. "I guess I'll find out what we're really after when I get my hands on it."

"Now you've done it," he heard Sorata laugh from other side of the war room. "You know how Kamui hates losing at Rock, Paper, Scissors."

"He'll be fine after he's perched on something tall for a while," Fai shot back. "That always makes him feel balanced and defensible."

The latch on the door was shaking in his grip and the hinges squealing when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "I'll go with you," Subaru said. Kamui hadn't even heard him walk up, and barely noticed his anger fading away as they stepped out into the narrow corridor.

"Subaru..."

"Some quiet will be nice while we can get it. This won't be a good year."

"This trip would go just fine if that-" Kamui cut himself off as he realized that Subaru hadn't been talking about Chizeta. Nobody expected Chizeta to go longer than a week before they gave in. "Wait. Did you say,_year_?"

Green eyes stared him down with blunt honesty. Kamui thought he could see echoes in them of the whispers about comets only Subaru could read in the skies, and omens the Pirate King would never take as seriously as they deserved. He tried to sigh, but felt a shiver in his chest that wouldn't still. "I won't ask what you mean by that. I bet I won't like it."

As they stepped from the lamplit confines of the ship to the clear night on deck, the brocade of Subaru's coat seemed to shine all the brighter under the white light of the moon and stars, as if the yellow flames indoors weren't pure enough and cast a colored shadow over his back. Seeming to glow like the the foam capping the nearest waves on the obsidian seas, his friend murmured, "I'm sure."


	2. Coco Rosa

_**DISCLAIMER:**__ All CLAMP stories were created by CLAMP. Characters have been adapted without authorization or approval, and I am making no profit from their use._

"Dark and Stormy" is the fifth story in my Pirates vs. Ninjas alternate universe, "Fifteen Mokona on a Dead Man's Chest". **Reading the previous stories is not required.** That said, if you would like to read the stories in order to take advantage of the continuity, details are on my profile page.

* * *

**[Coco Rosa]**

_Blend equal parts rum, coconut water, and coconut milk with a half-measure of grenadine and a cup of ice.  
__Pour into a highball glass.  
__Garnish with shaved coconut and a cherry._

All three of them heard the scrape of a long boat pulling up onto the shore. "Pirates," Hikaru murmured. They were too far from the seashore for normal ears to hear them. She, Umi-chan, and Fuu-chan all slipped between the trees safely back from the beachline, hidden out of sight in the hazy unreality of the shadows. "Who do you think it'll be?"

Swords in hand, they waited to see. Umi-chan whispered, "My bet's on Arashi, the war-mistress. Anyone pulling ashore here must be leading an ambush, right?"

"Except for Captain Arisugawa, I'd say they're all equally likely," Fuu-chan answered. "But the captain would be needed elsewhere. There's always a chance we'll be lucky, and the _Dragon of Heaven_ would have sent a few lackeys without any of their officers."

That was for sure, Hikaru thought to herself. With the situation as volatile as it was, any ninja who knew less than a tenth of what she knew about pirates would be hoping to get overlooked as soon as they saw those proud pirate sails puffing in the bay, or Takifugu's pufferfish flag flying over that prow - carved with the figurehead of a red-eyed girl whose white hair trailed into her flowing garments and down into the water. Hinoto, the Lady Luck of the Pirate King's flagship, and where she sailed, her sister ship the _Dragon of Earth_ would be close enough to rain down destruction before the next sun set. Hikaru wouldn't have shied away from a clean scuffle with piracy's elite herself, but it didn't bode well for their mission being _quick_.

The Pirate King's Council, so Eagle had said, was home to the very best from each of the ten great pirate fleets. The _Dragon of Heaven_ and the _Dragon of Earth_ made port in the Kaizuka, the floating capital of the Takifugu fleet, but the captain of the _Dragon of Heaven_ came from these Southern waters, the cream of Chizeta, and the captain of the _Dragon of Earth_ had sailed his way to fame in the Eunos Islands dotting the warm, equatorial sea between the three Eastern continents. Fleets as close as England and France, and as far off as Santiago, Lifan, Autozam, Mazda, and Oro... all of the pirate admirals sent commands to their ships from those decks - leaving four officer spots open between the two crews for whoever was strong enough to take them.

Hikaru had fought some tough pirates in her days, but the only ninja she'd heard could win against that lot without an army to back him up was Kurogane. At least, if they went head to head, that was. If she, Umi-chan, and Fuu-chan did their job right, of course, those pirates would never know ninja had been here at all, and if they did have to fight, the three of them were about a match for an army. They'd make it. But they all listened carefully now to find out if their cover had already been blown. The Pirate King was supposed to be meeting Tarta and Tatra on the other side of the island, after all, not sending people to search the beach near the volcano.

All holding the same breath, the girls waited for the pirate footsteps to come out from behind the sheer wall of a cliff. Three sets of footsteps, she counted, one quiet and calm, one with a bright spring in the step, and one stomping so hard the sand complained underneath.

"_He cheated_," a snarly voice said. "He's a cheat. He always cheats." The voice belonged to the first figure to pass the cliff, hair even blacker than his close-fitted brocade coat, eyes that flashed with the same purple trimming as his waistcoat and one or two of the bobbing feathers on his hat.

"I think that's Death Shirou," Fuu-chan murmured. So much for lackeys. It had to be him, sure as breathing - the phenom born and raised in the royal mansion at Kaizuka, First Mate on the _Dragon of Heaven_. That scowl was legendary.

And the girl bouncing next to him in avocado and lime jacquard was Black Cat Yuzuriha. They'd met once in line at the ice cream parlor, while Hikaru was pretending to be an ordinary schoolgirl. She was actually super nice. Fighting her might be fun!

"He didn't have to cheat, Kamui," the pirate lady laughed. "Everybody knows you always throw Paper!"

"People are more likely to throw Rock than anything else! And Paper beats Rock!"

"That only works if nobody knows that _you always throw Paper_. Hey, Saiki-kun!" she called out to the blond trailing behind them, looking much less fine in his yellowed linens and unlaced leather vest. "Can I see the map?"

The pirates stopped all of a yard away, right at the edge of the trail as they studied their parchment. Always nice when hiding in shadows worked that well. None of the ninja spoke. No reason to jinx it.

"What the-?!" Death Shirou grabbed the map with both hands. "This is bullshit! How is a maze supposed to help us? The volcano's not even on here!"

The blond pointed towards the mountain looming in the not-too-distant landscape beyond the village. "Well, we can see the volcano, right? That shouldn't be a problem."

"I know. I just have this sense of impending doom," the black-clad pirate said, shaking his head.

Yuzuriha pulled him onto a path by the wrist. "You have senses of impending doom more often than you throw Paper."

"Can you blame me?! God, I wish Subaru were here."

"If we get attacked, just make sure you jump high enough that when you spontaneously generate feathers, they fly above the treeline. The Sumeragi will probably _see_ them, and then he _will_ be here."

"And if that doesn't work, we've got a flare gun," added the blond who Yuzuriha had called Saiki.

"I don't need Subaru to _rescue_ me!" As the pirates turned down a curve in the path toward the village, trees shielding them from sight, the last thing they heard was Shirou grumbling, "And I don't make feathers appear out of nowhere for _fun_, you know. The universe does that on its own! Because it hates me!"

All at once, the three ninja phased out of the shadows back onto the edge of the sand. "So..." Umi-chan said, turning to Hikaru and Fuu-chan with a smack of her lips. "... Everyone noticed that they're headed the same place we're headed, right?" As they nodded, she rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Just checking. Fan-fucking-_tastic_."

~/~

Casting on the mooring line, Sorata nodded at the docked _Bravada_, wooden slats of her fan-sails stowed tight with bare-chested crewmen scrubbing the decks. The blue and red djinn designs etched all around the top of the ship's sides, curling together in a spiral at the point of the bow, were all the proof they needed. That was Tatra and Tarta's ship. He'd know it anywhere.

"Told'ja this's where they'd be," he snickered, and pulled himself up on the dock.

Fai stepped lightly from their longboat to the solid pier, easy as if he'd been strolling up a hill. It took a man who'd lived his life on the waves to know how much balance you needed to switch from sea to land so easily, and Sorata envied anyone who had it. Only the Fata Morgana (with her legs like a work of art, no fooling) and the Sumeragi had anywhere near the grace to their step that the Pirate King could muster. The blond twirled around on his toes, pulling taut over his shoulders a careworn, oversized jacket the color of lichens. "So, how do I look?"

He scratched his head, ignoring the sailors on the _Bravada_ signaling their mistresses that company had arrived. They'd come to talk, so that was no problem. Fai's jacket, on the other hand... Now, the King had said they were doing this casual, and that sure was casual. Not that it looked bad with the baby blue waistcoat traced in silver riding underneath it, or with the cream, feather-crested hat. 'Distressed' could be a fashion statement - just a strange one, seeing something so close to needing patches and so long the sleeves needed folded up decking the man who usually gussied himself up to the perfectly tailored nines when he was stepping out. And if Sorata remembered right, that particular jacket might as well have been the start of all their problems with Chizeta. At least, _that particular problem_ had been wearing it. "I'd been meaning to ask- Is that... the jacket the Sumeragi pulled off'a Kurogane when he snuck on board the other week?"

"Yep!" Fai snugged the collar around his neck, seams draping a bit where the largeness of the fabric folded in to meet the blond's slender frame. "Perfect fit, don't you think?"

"Is there a reason you're wearing a ninja's pirate costume instead of the coat you always wear? You know, not that there's anything wrong with that."

With a chuckle, his crazy-ass leader cast his eyes to the shore, then whipped around toward the tent where Tatra and Tarta had to be waiting. "Because I can," Fai declared.

"Hey, I ain't gonna complain." It was the same reason the King did anything. Fair enough. He'd never have worn something that sweltering, though, not in a place like this. Sorata had pulled his old clothes out of his trunk to let 'em get some air as soon as he'd heard they were sailing down themselves. A bright orange wrap hung over his shoulder and the lazy island wind billowed through pants that felt as light as the air. Ten times too thin for the cold-ass life up north, that stuff was. The only hint of brocade and leather he'd kept was the belts over his hips - one for keepin' his clothes on, and one to hang his sword from.

Man, it felt good to be home.

As he jumped atop one of the pillars steadying the dock, he cupped his hands around his mouth and bellowed at the tent struck on the rocky sand a few feet back from the tide line. "Ahoy, the shore!" Sorata whipped a black handkerchief from where he'd tucked it under his belt and waved it over his head. "Two come seeking parlay with the Princesses of Chizeta!"

A yell rang out of the tent, scaring the birds off in every direction as far as the eyes could see. That'd be Tarta, one crocodile of a woman, though Sorata'd take a fight with her over a negotiation with the older sister any day of the week. Her Ladyship, Princess Tatra, was more like a Venus Flytrap. All pretty and inviting and smiles and stillness, then _snap_! You're dead meat. At least with the younger sister calling down curses from behind flaps of silk or on a wide wooden deck, you always knew what she was thinkin'. "You wanna end this with a parlay, do you? What limp-dicked Kaizuka fribble thinks he can _talk us_ into-"

She stormed past the tent flap and nearly fell on her bikini-suited bottom when she saw him wave, long red ponytail swinging up to hit her in the face. Her older sister's hands on her shoulders kept the pirate princess on her feet. "Honestly, Tarta! Such language! And in front of visitors, too..." The two ladies stepped forward with the silk sarongs tied at their waists trailing out behind them. "Oh, but you're not visitors at all, are you?! Sora-chan, what a pleasure to see you again! And I see you brought a friend, too."

They stepped off the pier and onto the sand, meeting the princesses halfway up the beach. Fai bowed at the waist, perfectly genteel and looking every inch the King despite the worn coat hanging from his shoulders. "Fai D. Fluorite, at your service. It's an honor to meet you face to face - Lady Tatra, Lady Tarta."

"And what brings the King of Pirates so far south at this time of year?" the elder sister giggled into her hand. "Why, it's not even festival season, or I'd have some coconut salad for you. The cooks in Saijaan make simply the _best_ coconut salad."

Tarta rolled her eyes, her growl nearly drowning out the clink of gold bangles as she brought her hands to her hips. "We know why he's here, Tatra-neesama! He thinks if he struts Sorata down here to have a chat with us, we'll be so swept up that we'll forget how that whole ship's gone _ninja-happy_!" She pointed a finger up under Fai's chin, getting closer to the blond than Sorata would have dared do if he were making a threat. People who closed in to attack the Pirate King had a way of finding themselves screaming at empty air right before a bucket of fish oil 'accidentally' fell on their heads. He didn't much want to know what would happen if you pushed the man far enough to make him fight for serious. "Well, think again!" Tarta yelled, neverminding how Sorata and Tatra each grabbed an arm to pull her back. "In Chizeta, we keep these islands clean of ninja scum, and we don't see any reason to hold with a Pirate Guild whose _master_ lets a ninja come and go from his flagship as he pleases! Did you even get a ransom for those hostages you took?!"

The smile dancing across Fai's lips didn't falter for an instant. "Oh. I got _plenty_."

Sorata let Tarta's arm go, and nodded at Tatra to do the same, letting the enraged red-head charge the Pirate King. Fai was asking for it. He may as well get it, or he might start asking for worse. The blond man slid to the side so she rushed past him, and leapt off to take a lap around the beach with Tarta hot on his tail. From the way his laughs rung out over the seascape and his steps seemed to float as easy as old rope through the baggywrinkle, you wouldn'ta thought he was getting run down by the second best sword-fighter alive in Chizeta. Tarta was already flashing her scimitar, although she wasn't gaining an inch on Fai for all the sand she was kicking up in a tail behind her.

"Sorry about that!" Sorata laughed, scratching at the back of his neck with a grin that was more than a little bit grimace. So he had to negotiate with Tatra after all. Maybe it was for the best. The elder princess and the Pirate King could probably smile at each other all day and never say a word that'd get anybody anywhere. "His Grace said he wanted to talk this out, but he's got what you might call... issues with anger management. In other people. Just can't help seeing what it takes to set them off. The parlay request is for real."

"You'll have to forgive Tarta as well. You know she's normally such a sweet girl."

"Ah... yeah." An image haunted his brain of Tarta from the summer festival before he'd left for the north, wearing nothing but twenty-five balloon-missiles-worth of mango jam, whooping with a makeshift club held high, and taunting everybody who'd run second or lower in the annual marathon from her perch on the lip of the volcano. It was kinda sweet, he guessed. At least, the jam had been sweet when he'd taken a fruit bomb of his own to the face. "Anyways, we brought down a crate of oranges in the boat, and some wine to go with 'em. Why don't you and me at least sit down in your tent and have a civil chat? Maybe put this whole mess behind us? 'Cause I don't wanna fight you, Tatra."

She tapped her lip and looked back at the tent, the racing figures of Fai and Tarta dashing past the front flap three times while Tatra thought in silence. Then she turned to him and smiled. "Goodness. If we go into the tent for a chat, whatever will I do with the squad of bowmen waiting inside for you two to make a false move? I guess they'll have to switch to swords at such close range..."

Some people might have thought Tatra was joking, but he'd known her long enough and well enough to make out that she was dead serious. She'd opened her laugh-squinted eyes up enough for him to see the steel in 'em. "Is this really how it has to be?" he sighed.

"Nobody minds who a pirate dallies with, Sora-chan. But if the Pirate King's flagship can't deal properly with one ninja, you're going to have to prove your crew's fitness for command." The princess pushed a toe under the sand to unearth her shield and whip, grin turning cold as she took them up. "And you'll be doing it the old-fashioned way."

He fell into a fighting stance with his cutlass out. "That's too bad. I was lookin' forward to your mint tea."

~/~

From their spot in the bushes, Kamui could see more men and women than he was quite happy with, sorting out kegs of powder and reserves of food from stockpiles. The piles the Chizetan pirates were making looked like supplies for at least fifteen warships, with plenty more still in storage. Nothing the _Dragon of Heaven_ and the _Dragon of Earth_ couldn't handle together, but it'd cost them dear. "I'd like to go in there, right through the front, and break up their whole operation," he murmured. He didn't like skulking around in the shadows like this, trying not to get seen. That was ninja stuff.

Yuzuriha pinched his nose and stifled a laugh. "As long as the Captain hasn't shot off the flare gun, the diplomatic solution still has a chance. No breaking things till then! But if things go south by the time we're done at the volcano, you can let loose on the way back."

"_Thanks_." Whoever'd had the bright idea to put the admirals of all the different fleets together as some kind of sea-borne ambassadorial super squad had probably had very good reasons for it, like some fragment of world peace, but all of its perks meant living with one nasty side effect - every officer on board was so used to being in charge, nobody really gave a damn about their local chain of command. Maybe Sorata was technically Captain, and he was technically First Mate, and maybe Fai had scored the title of Pirate King by some means no one could explain, but _everyone_ was in charge. Sometimes, Kamui thought he'd pay his weight in gold doubloons to understand when he should just ignore everyone's advice and rush off on his own instincts.

Yuzuriha was right, he decided as he watched more barrels of salted fish rolled into position. If he tried to sabotage the campsite here, nothing Sorata said to the princesses could stop a war. Their best chance of walking away from this with no trouble was not to _start_ trouble.

He sighed and scowled at the Chizetan stockpiles. "Fine. So let's get to the goddamn volcano and get what we came for."

"Uncle Seiichirou says he went to the top of that volcano-" Saeki paused as Kamui and Yuzuriha turned to give him the eye. He threw both his hands up. "I'm sorry! I mean... Lord Aoki!"

"We know the Oathkeeper's your uncle, Saeki-san," answered Yuzuriha, shaking her head at the deck hand's blushing. "Now, what'd he say about the volcano?"

"Just that he'd been by here when he was young, and the people here race to the top of the volcano every year for their summer festival. Before we left the ship, he said he thought it was odd, His Grace wanting something from the volcano. He hadn't noticed anything there at all."

"So he means it can't be at the top." Kamui could feel the sandy earth under his hands running through his fingers as they closed into fists. "Fai can't possibly mean for us to search every inch of that mountain when we don't even know how to tell when we've found what we're looking for."

Pulling at the collar of her coat, so much heavier and more closely cut than anything the locals wore, Yuzuriha laughed. "And it's not like we blend. Think somebody'd talk to us long enough for us to ask if there's a secret cave or anything?"

Funny how every place on Earth had bugs that sounded like crickets, just waiting to count out moments of awkward silence.

Then a flash caught Kamui's attention out of the corner of his eye. Nothing big, just a flicker of red where that shade of red shouldn't have been there to see, then a flicker of blue as he turned his head around - as ephemeral as a spark jumping between folds of a blanket in the dark. No one in the camp noticed it. Even Yuzuriha hadn't seen it, and her eyes were among the best on the ship for spotting the smallest hint of land on the horizon. When the flicker of green jumped from the shadow of one tent across a patch of sunlight to another shadow, he was looking straight at it. He stilled his breath and looked carefully like years of necessity had taught him. The best ninja seemed to disappear clear out of the world, same as moths blending into the bark of a tree. A moth could flap its wings, and if you weren't looking for it, you'd never see it until it flew straight into your face. But if you knew how to look for the wavering of patterns in the bark, they were there to notice. And if you knew how to look for the subtle ripples in the flat reality of the world, you could see a ninja move.

Just barely, his eyes could make out a pole that shimmered and bent as faintly as if you'd dropped it into an inch of the clearest water. Maybe less. This was no amateur. Then a coconut tree showed a hint of warping, and another, the effect disappearing down a path. Kamui pointed in the direction where the ninja - it had to be ninja - had disappeared. "We're going that way."

"Kamui, that path goes away from the volcano."

"Trust me," he answered, and shifted as quietly as possible behind the bushes so as not to attract attention from the locals. If ninja were here, that'd explain why Fai was in some kind of a rush to get what he was after. The Witch-Queen, Yuuko, was probably after the same thing.

He tried to keep his eyes open for the glimmers that'd show a ninja passing, but while he was on the move it was impossible to see. His perspective kept shifting too much to see the world itself shift. All he could do was run where his gut told him to, and breathe a tiny word of thanks that the trail had no branches. Yuzuriha and Saeki ran along behind him without another complaint, all of them setting foot on the trail and running at full tilt as soon as they were clear of the rebel encampment's sightlines.

The last thing he expected to hear was voices coming out of the wood ahead of them. There hadn't been any footprints, or any indication at all that another soul had gone ahead of them save the ninja sign that had pointed him this way. If a team of shinobi had heard them coming, a silent ambush ought to have been waiting, but if they were talking...

Maybe the ninja had somehow missed them following? Or they were doing something unexpected and weird. Kamui _hated_ unexpected and weird.

Blocking the path with his arm, Kamui slowed and motioned to Yuzuriha to stay quiet. Together, the three of them crept around the corner, listening to the girls' voices conversing at the end of the trail.

"These are definitely igneous formations. See the smooth trails here? And I think that's volcanic glass..."

"I'm telling you, that's quartzite! It's definitely metamorphic, Fuu!"

"Well, let's note the surroundings in the notebook and collect some samples to take back to school, okay? Then we can see if that passage leads under the volcano."

As the trees cleared, he could see three figures gathered around around an ordinary-looking opening in a rock outcropping Kamui never would have looked at twice. It certainly didn't look like any kind of legendary cave he'd ever seen. The three girls weren't armed, either - that he could see. Didn't mean anything, he supposed. The ordinary schoolgirl clothes they were wearing didn't mean much either. All that mattered to Kamui about them was that one girl was wearing fiery red, one was decked out in blue like some moods of the sea, and one had a jacket and skirt the same green as sunlit leaves rustling in a breeze.

From over his shoulder, Yuzuriha called out, "Hikaru?" and ran out to meet the three girls. He didn't manage to grab her jacket in time to stop her.

The red-haired, red-clad girl looked up, and the surprise on her face was plenty convincing for all that Kamui didn't believe it. "Yuzuriha-chan? Is that you? Well, what do you know! Our school sends us halfway around the planet on a research trip, and here you are!"

"That is just too crazy to believe," Yuzuriha said, stretching her arms back behind her head. She was standing just far enough away that Kamui could hold some hope she _didn't_ believe it.

"Too bad there's no ice cream here, huh?!"

"I heard there's a place that makes great slushies in Saijaan, though! We should totally go when you're done with your research! Do you mind if we hang out for awhile?"

The blonde dressed in green smiled brightly. What was it with blond people and those creepy, too-slick smiles? "Any friend of Hikaru-san's is a friend of ours. Please, stay as long as you like - I hope it won't be too boring watching us study the rocks?"

"That's enough bullshit," Kamui snarled, and drew his sword. These girls could hide it well, but every body that had trained for combat reacted somehow when threatened. Muscles ready to move, weight on the toes. Not even a hint of panic in any of their eyes. Maybe they knew when lying wasn't going to work anymore. "We know you're ninja, and we know you're after the orb."

Technically, that was more than he knew and fell firmly into the realm of guessing, but Kamui didn't much care. All three dropped whatever ruse they'd been clinging to, and fell back into a wedge formation, poised to take whatever attack he had to offer.


	3. Hurricane

_**DISCLAIMER:**__ All CLAMP stories were created by CLAMP. Characters have been adapted without authorization or approval, and I am making no profit from their use._

"Dark and Stormy" is the fifth story in my Pirates vs. Ninjas alternate universe, "Fifteen Mokona on a Dead Man's Chest". **Reading the previous stories is not required.** That said, if you would like to read the stories in order to take advantage of the continuity, details are on my profile page.

* * *

**[Hurricane]**

_Mix equal parts vodka, light rum, gin, triple sec, and Amaretto with half a measure of Bacardi 151._ _No substitutions.  
__Stir in grenadine syrup to taste.  
__Top off with pineapple and grapefruit juices._

Sand had already gotten into his boots, fighting the two princesses with Sorata at his back, so Fai pulled off the smooth leather and the socks underneath, balancing on his toes on the shifting beach as the collected heat of the sun burned into his skin. A hard fight under these conditions wasn't his idea of a perfect day, but if everything went just right, they wouldn't be fighting long.

If everything went right, he had much better plans for the day. This was an island paradise, after all.

He kept his eyes on the young princess with the sword, paused to catch her breath under one of the coconut trees. The ambush forces waiting in the tent, on the _Bravada_, and hidden around the surrounding flora wouldn't move until Tarta called for them - Tatra wouldn't do it first, not while she was in a one-on-one fight with Sorata.

"Draw your weapon!" The well-kept metal of Tarta's scimitar glinted in the sun as if she hoped to blind him with the flash.

Fai shrugged with a pout, ducking just enough to let Tatra's whip fly over his head from behind and miss the feather on his hat by an inch. "Can't! I'm unarmed!" he called back. "But that's my fault, isn't it? No reason for you to hold back."

Technically not true. He had plenty of tricks up his sleeves (and various other places), but he wasn't _going_ to fight her. And that, as they said, was that. Just as Sorata rushed to close in on Tatra, Fai dashed over to a particular palm tree - not quite close enough to the other trees for the waiting Chizetan squads to consider it an opportunity. And when Tarta grinned and charged him, he smiled right back.

"You've got guts, I'll say that much," she answered, landing another slice in the sand when Fai slid out of the way of her strike. "Or a little too much crazy. Takin' on my sword barehanded."

"I wouldn't say '_taking on_', really. Weren't we still having a conversation? I'm just dodging."

"There ain't nothing..." Her blade whistled by his ear. Barely missed that one! "... to talk about!"

"Isn't there?" Fai laughed. "You object to how my crew handled a little ninja run-in, and why wouldn't you? You've got no idea how we could have let a single ninja get in, and get away with what he wanted. When you've kept these islands ninja-free for so long, I entirely understand how you'd take that amiss."

"So stop wasting my time!"

The princess cut the air with a slash, right where his chest would have been if he hadn't rolled behind her. As he stood, he wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her sword hand back to break her grip, leaving the scimitar glittering on the beach. "But it's just not fair for you to judge us, don't you think? You've never even met the ninja we're talking about. Anyone can say they'd have done better, when they haven't had to handle that particular problem. That's easy." He snapped one of his feet back from Tarta's attempt to mash it with her heel, then trapped her leg. Taking her down to one knee, he whispered, "I think my crew deserves a more informed opinion. What do you say?"

Planting her free arm in the sand, Tarta twisted and kicked, knocking herself free and slamming Fai in the chest with both feet. Even rolling with the impact, that still hurt. But not enough to slow him down just yet. "You goddamned jellyfish! What the hell are you even asking? Spit it out!"

With a chuckle - mostly a smile, really, ten parts grin to one part laugh - he lifted his eyes up to a palm tree that wasn't as empty as everyone else on the beach thought it was. Seeing ninja who were hidden was a difficult trick to master, but he'd been practicing almost as long as ninja had been hiding. He looked straight at a man who'd just realized Fai could see him, clear as day, and yelled out, "Kuro-puu! Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Oh, the look on that man's face before he faded into full view. It would've melted the steel on a icebreaker's wedge. Well, he'd have to be upset to find out his little fact-finding mission wasn't as secret as he'd hoped, wouldn't he? Ninja were touchy about that. Fai tossed a look back over his shoulder toward Tarta scrambling first for her sword, then back toward the pier. "Olly olly oxen free."

"What the _fuck_?!" That was Sorata. One could hardly blame him, Fai supposed. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Deadly probably hadn't made any officer's list of favorite people during his visit the other week. Except Fai's own, of course. "Fai-san, you wanna tell me what you think you're doing?! Why is _he_ here?"

The ninja lowered himself to the sand, striding forward. This time he was properly clothed in black ninja armor and everything. Absolutely scrumptious, and so full of very angry, unspoken questions. Probably not too different from the question Sorata had asked - only instead of 'What's he doing here?' it'd be, 'How did you find out?' Fai laughed at both his ally and his 'enemy', staring into the breaking red storm of the ninja's eyes. "Oh, Kuro-kyun's been tracking us practically since we stopped to resupply in Marseilles," Fai answered. "I just thought, as long as we had him in tow, we might as well show our friends in Chizeta what manner of man got the better of our ship. Maybe they'll be more understanding." Tarta and Tatra had gathered up now, standing shoulder to shoulder and looking ready to summon their army. Skipping over to where Kuro-rin was flaring his nose and taking the lay of the land, Fai spread out his arms to indicate all the many options the ninja offered to put up one hell of a fight. "Exhibit A."

An arm flew around his throat faster than he could blink, almost cutting off his air. Almost. Fai could already feel his heart beating faster as the ninja's other hand caught his wrists behind his back. "I ought to break your neck right now," the man in black hissed.

"But you won't. Will you, lover?" He could feel it in the tension running through his ninja's legs and arms. Even through layers of cotton and linen, Fai could just drink in the way Kuro-rin's body fit to his. There wasn't an ounce of desire to kill anywhere in him. No, it was a different kind of desire, and yet not quite the kind of lust he could get from any passing scoundrel in the night. This was far more indulgent. One more time, the hum of their skin coming so close fed through his blood like a high note cracking a crystal glass. He wasn't done playing with that yet. "You still want to know who I am. You haven't figured me out. Isn't that why you're here?"

"And you think I'm going to fight them just for that? For you?"

"Of course not." It'd been a gamble just banking on his Kuro-tan showing himself when Fai called out. That only would have worked if the ninja cared more about what Fai could see - and what he might be planning - than he cared about getting in the middle of a pirate crossfire. The fact that the man was pulling his arm up now until his spine hit a painful curve, instead of waiting invisible in that tree while everyone on the beach assumed the Pirate King was fooling around again... That on its own made this officially a Good Day, Fai thought as he chuckled at the force of bright red eyes glaring down at him and the low rumble of a growl starting by his ear. "I don't care which side you fight on," Fai answered. "Just having you here, it's already less boring."

A shower of arrows ripped out of the tent at the far edge of the beach, and the ninja tossed him to the ground, stepping out in front to cut down every missile coming their way. Fai rolled as he hit and avoided a mouthful of sand, biting his lip with a grin. There went Kuro-pii, one more time. Talking so tough and then acting so sweet. The ninja had stepped right into the perfect position to stop the arrows from hitting _both_ of them. Maybe he hadn't been all the way lying two weeks ago, when he'd made such a convincing act of caring just the teensiest bit - definitely more than he'd wanted to do.

But he wouldn't _be here_ for so simple a reason as that, and Fai meant to find out why he'd tracked them all this way - and how.

He stood at the ninja's back, casting a taunting grin toward the two princesses who were starting to advance with a small squadron behind them. "You might want to decide if I'm friend or foe pretty quick, Kuro-sama. This is about to get messy."

"You're no friend of mine. But if you were gonna stab me in the back, you'd have done it by now."

Sorata rolled over the ground between volleys from the archers, standing so the three of them were back-to-back-to-back against the oncoming fighters. "You maybe wanna tell me before you pull something like this, Fai-san? We got some pissed off ladies on our hands now. And, ah... Hi... Kurogane-san. Nice to see you again?"

"Let's save the chat till the battle's clear, Captain," the ninja answered, then did a double take at Fai before training his gaze back on the enemy. "What the... _Are you wearing my coat?_"

"Eyes on the road, lover."

The crowds circled up and closed in under Tarta's command, bowmen running behind Tatra as she headed for the _Bravada_. The younger princess snarled, "Working with ninja! What else have you been hiding from us, huh? Well, we're not chumps you can lick without gettin' bit. If you think we're gonna take this, you've got another thing coming!"

"I think this counts as negotiations going bad," Sorata murmured, and reached for the flare gun on his belt.

Batting the captain's hand back down, Fai laughed out loud. Now they were definitely having fun. "I think we can take them."

~/~

The three pirates all had blades out, but Hikaru didn't plan to draw hers yet. Fuu-chan and Umi-chan kept their swords hidden away as well, only bringing up their guards with their fists. Technically, she was pretty sure the three of them had the advantage if they got into a brawl, given the shadows littering the forested terrain, but not enough of one, and a brawl wasn't going to help anybody. Between a nearby camp full of hostile locals that would be none too happy with any of the people in this clearing, and the front-line issue of how the pirate First Mate had been able to spot them and follow them this way, Hikaru was sure every ninja in the crowd wanted to ask questions first and throw fireballs later. Shirou-san and Yuzuriha-chan must have thought something similar, or they'd have attacked by now.

"So," Hikaru said, mouth twisting down into a frown. "You're after the orb, too."

"Whatever's in that volcano, I'm taking it," Shirou answered.

If Eagle had brought them down in the FTO, they would have beaten the pirate team by at least a week, easy. This could have been so much simpler, even with the miles of twisting cave they'd have to search to get under the volcano yet to go. But no use crying over it once brigands had shown up, blown their cover, and pulled swords, even if only one team could take the prize home. "Put your swords away," she told him. "When you ran up that path, some of the Chizetans heard you. We heard them putting together a search party." Hikaru stepped slowly toward Shirou-san, hands up and showing her palms, and she put her arm over the top of his cutlass to push it towards the ground.

He flashed it down out of her reach, then swung it right back into a sideways thrust at her forehead. Or, where her forehead would have been if she hadn't flicker-stepped back to her position next to Umi-chan and Fuu-chan. "Give me one good reason why I should believe that. You're ninja. A second ago you were pretending to be students. Why would I trust you not to lie and then take us down the second we drop our guard?"

That was basically standard protocol, Hikaru had to admit, although she'd always been pretty much the pits at the lying part. Unfortunately for all of them, the search party was real. They'd heard the yells from the camp a split second after they'd realized the three pirates had managed to tail them.

"Wait two minutes, and it'll come around that corner with blow-guns and arrows," Umi-chan snapped at him. "God! You know, just a tip? Practice running so your footsteps don't sound like elephants!"

"She may be right, Kamui." Yuzuriha-chan turned to peek back through the trees. "I think I hear voices down the path."

"Kamui-san, is it?" Hikaru grinned as brightly as she could and pointed at the bare hole in the rocks. "I'm Hikaru. Why don't we all go hide in the caves, and settle this after the search party leaves?"

"I don't want any of your tricks!"

Yuzuriha-chan stepped up, putting a hand on Kamui-san's shoulder even as she kept her sword pointed at Fuu-chan's throat with the other. "I think we ought to go, Kamui. They haven't drawn their weapons, and they're not going to. If the search party finds us like this, all they'll see is three officers of an enemy fleet holding three schoolgirls hostage. We can't prove they're ninja."

"But they _are_ ninja!"

"And the orb you're after is probably something the villagers don't want taken," Umi-chan added. "Only one way to find out, though. I can't wait to see their faces when we say you're looking for it."

The black-coated pirate squeezed his grip tighter on the hilt of his sword. "I'm not cooperating with ninja. This whole Chizetan mess never would have happened if His Grace hadn't decided to cut a deal with that Kurogane jackass. I don't care who's coming - cooperating with ninja makes _everything worse_!"

That had to be the first time she'd ever heard the words "Kurogane" and "deal" in the same sentence. She'd heard the officers on the _Dragon of Heaven_ were strong, but strong enough to convince the Black Hawk of Suwa that any level of cooperation was necessary? There was no way they could risk starting a fight until they had a slightly better idea what Kamui-san and Yuzuriha-chan could do.

Hikaru traded a quick glance with her two friends. The each nodded. So, putting her hands higher over her head and putting on a pleasant smile, Fuu-chan stepped sideways out of formation. "All right, then. We surrender." Umi-chan followed suit a heartbeat later, and Hikaru joined them in the middle of the line. "You win. We're your prisoners. Shall we all see what's underground before the locals arrive?"

A growl echoed out of Kamui-san's throat, and he seemed to be getting madder by the instant. But before he could shout, Yuzuriha-chan parried his sword down and held up a fist. "Rock, Paper, Scissors. You win, go nuts. I win, we all go into the caves with the ninja as our prisoners?"

"Fine!" Kamui-san yelled. The two pirate officers turned to block any view of their hands from the ninja watching, shook their arms three times, and then the First Mate shoved his cutlass into scabbard hard enough to make it ring through the whole clearing. "_God damn it!_"

Voices from out along the forest path cried out that someone was definitely here, and Yuzuriha-chan waved all six of them towards the natural rock steps down into the caves. "Come on. Let's go."

All six of them raced down the natural steps into the dark cave beyond the rock face, Kamui-san muttering under his breath, "_...same fucking trick that bastard pulled! 'Surrender', my_ foot. _Just gonna bite us in the ass in the end..._" Three underground tunnels branched off the first room they found, a squarish hole in the ground with a passage cut into every wall, and the one behind them that went to ground level didn't count. Hikaru shot a fireball down each of their three options, then lit another flame to hold in her hand. Breaks and turns down every path. She could summon some automata and use a sensor technique to track where each one went, but without knowing how many bends and branches and hazards there were, that could take more time than was available. They had a mob of villagers on their tail, and getting caught by village mobs never went well.

Umi-chan pulled her hand to her chin, eyes narrowed at the three ways they could run, none of them marked with any sign and each as abandoned-looking as the last. "Well, let's start by agreeing that none of us trust each other enough to split up, even if it were safe. And this cave is where our map ends."

"We've got our own map!" Kamui-san growled, holding out his hand to the blond pirate. Once he had the parchment in his hand, he tilted it to get a look in Hikaru's ball of light. "Ha! Three passages off the entrance. Maybe Fai didn't completely screw us over..." The pirate traced a couple routes with his finger. "If this is accurate, the center path's no good, but left and right would get to the exit. That's good enough to start on." As he looked up, he scowled at her. Hikaru grinned, and Fuu-chan took the opportunity to sneak a photograph of the maze map over Kamui-san's shoulder. Never say no to extra information. Any trace of the shutter clicking vanished under the sound of Kamui growling, "So we follow you this far, and you follow us the rest of the way? I can't be the only one thinking somebody planned for that to happen. That fucking dandy must've been holding this for years, but he didn't send us till now."

Which could be why Lady Yuuko had wanted them on the slow boat: to hook them up with the pirates who'd know how to get the rest of the way. Well, the head of the Ninja Union could be in on something with the Pirate King if she wanted, Hikaru supposed, or they might just have been spying on each other enough to know what the other side was doing, planning to take advantage. Neither was against the rules. And sometimes pirates could be nice! Like Eagle!

"_This is a fucking setup_," Kamui-san spat, talking to Yuzuriha-chan now even though he was still looking straight at Hikaru. "I don't like it."

Yuzuriha-chan glanced at the map, and tilted it so its directions matched up with the layout of the cave. "It's the best choice we've got, so I say we go while the getting's still an option. Would you say the fastest route to the exit is the left fork?"

"Well it's the shortest," Umi-chan threw in. "It's got more markings on it, though. I'm just going to assume those colored splotches aren't bathrooms and snack bars. The right fork is longer, but it might actually be faster to run. The only obstacle is that blue spot right there."

"Either way, let's book it," the blond pirate hissed. Footsteps pounded the earth above their heads. It wouldn't be long before they came down.

Yuzuriha-chan looked back and forth between the two options. "Okay. Right it is. Let's hit it."

"Take the third left!" Kamui-san called out, jogging with the map out in front of his eyes, Hikaru keeping pace by his side to hold a light where he could read. Fuu-chan kept a wind behind them to blow their footsteps clear, and Yuzuriha-chan took the lead with Saiki-san - blades out, just in case there was trouble. Umi-chan had summoned her sword and had her water techniques ready to go as she took up the rear, because trouble was coming that way for sure. They ran like that as fast as Kamui-san could read.

Right up to the bank of a crocodile-infested water pit, dug at least fifty meters long and god knew how deep, with posts sticking up in the first few yards (to cross on, Hikaru supposed, each of them installed one longish leap from the next), then a trapeze hanging from the arched ceiling that'd land you on a log mounted to an incline, and a pinched together space of wall that blocked off whatever might be past it. And had she mentioned the crocodiles?

"Well," Yuzuriha-chan sighed. "You were right. That's only a snack bar if we're meant to be the snacks."

Holding out her arms, Umi-chan shot an ice spray at the water only to have the icicles vanish an inch above the surface. Not even a ripple. "Bad news, guys. That's one hell of a barrier. What kind of fucked-up person designs something like this anyway?! An actual crocodile-infested, magic-guarded underground obstacle course? This is _ridiculous_!"

"The orbs were something Clow made, right?" Hikaru asked. "Because Clow would do this. It's totally his style."

Her two old, ninja friends and her three new pirate friends suddenly looked sick to their stomachs. Saiki-san groaned, checking the hall behind them. The echoes were getting closer again. "So we should assume the crocodiles won't die, and not waste our time killing them."

"Assume that's acid down there, too," Fuu-chan added. "Not water."

Everyone flexed their knees and got ready to leap onto the course, the pirates and Umi-chan stowing their swords. "Clow, you asshole!" her blue-haired friend muttered. "This is why nobody likes you!"

Hikaru shot a fireball to hover ahead of them on the track, watching the timing of the crocodiles who snapped as it flew, and clapped Kamui-san and Yuzuriha-chan on the shoulders with a smile. "Don't worry, guys! We'll be fine!"


	4. Mojito

_**DISCLAIMER:**__ All CLAMP stories were created by CLAMP. Characters have been adapted without authorization or approval, and I am making no profit from their use._

"Dark and Stormy" is the fifth story in my Pirates vs. Ninjas alternate universe, "Fifteen Mokona on a Dead Man's Chest". **Reading the previous stories is not required.** That said, if you would like to read the stories in order to take advantage of the continuity, details are on my profile page.

* * *

**[Mojito]**

_Add a few sprigs of spearmint, two spoons of sugar, and a splash of soda to your shaker._  
_Muddle until fragrant. (If you're without a muddler, a marlinspike or hand fid will serve. Do not use pistol butt or knife handle.)_  
_Juice a lime into shaker, add 3 oz. light rum._  
_Shake with ice, strain into highball glass._  
_Finish with soda and a sprig of mint._

The breeze was rolling in from the east across the bay, and with the King, the Captain, and the First Mate all ashore in their various locales, Aoki was taking his turn as Officer of the Watch. He'd already ordered the rudder set to take them to the port and had men on every sail waiting to open the sheets to the wind as soon as Sorata signaled for their help. Based on the fighting he could see through his spyglass, the call should have come ages ago - Tarta and Tatra making no waste of time before they'd attacked, and for the last few minutes there'd been a figure on the field he couldn't place by his clothes. The battle had looked even so far, and he supposed that was why Sorata hadn't called them, but if it got any worse, Aoki was going to make an executive decision to intervene.

The whole idea of sending just enough people to hold their own on the beach, and leaving the rest of them in reserve to back up Sorata or Kamui - whoever needed it - stank like the trip to the volcano was no whim, and like Fai was quite near to considering this negotiation to be a diversion. As if sending Kamui hadn't made his priorities clear enough. They'd never made a plan that didn't put Kamui right where they needed the most ready firepower. "Could it really be one of the Heavenly Twins' orbs he's after?" Aoki wondered out loud. A nice treasure, to be sure, but trinkets rarely had such a rush on them as to be worth splitting their forces like this.

"The sister's orb, to be precise," a somber, melodic voice spoke out from the base of the stairs leading up to the helm. The Sumeragi's voice, which had been the last one Aoki would've expected to hear. Even as he watched his fellow Lord stride up the stairs and breeze past the ship's wheel, he could barely believe he'd heard most of a sentence come out of the man's mouth. It'd been shocking enough that, ever since Kamui came aboard, he'd started leaving his cabin on a more regular basis, and doing so for matters other than bringing his violin out by the bow to play some nameless dirge for the rolling waves. For that man to converse beyond absolute necessities with anyone but the Pirate King or the First Mate was practically worth adding to the ship's log.

Aoki checked for anyone else in the area besides himself and the sailor on the wheel - whom their navigator passed without a glance. Had he somehow been designated as the person the Sumeragi talked to when Fai and Kamui weren't on the ship? How could that have happened? Why him? But the white-coated lord was right there, almost elbow to elbow with him at the helm, a feather as green as his eyes dancing on his hat as he gazed out through the web of rigging toward the skirmish on the beach.

Aoki offered him the spyglass to get a good look at the shore. He glanced at the instrument with a puzzled air, as if Aoki had been holding out his parrot instead, and turned his eyes back to the beach unaided. Pulling the spyglass back up to his own eye, Aoki went back to studying the battle for any sign that he needed to take action. No one served on this ship long without learning to let the Sumeragi do as he pleased. He didn't bother himself with day-to-day affairs, or with anyone else's domain, and there was no point in questioning his decisions about his own concerns; he would neither explain them, nor would he change his mind. If their navigator was happy to stare at indistinct figures in the distance, he had the right to do it.

All at once, the content of what the Sumeragi had said registered in his brain. With a start, he turned back to the marble-sculpted visage whose eyes were locked on the shoreline. "I'm sorry... Did you say '_the sister's orb_'? Is it _possible_ for you to be certain about that?" The last he'd heard, the orbs were legend, bordering on metaphor, and the legends had been fairly specific about no one having known where they went.

But the Sumeragi's gaze didn't waver, or look the least unsure. "The sister's orb fell somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere. The brother's fell to the North." Aoki felt his hands shake, hearing the firm sobriety in the man's tone. It was too much like the voices he'd heard from old captains, long retired and gray, telling the tale of the once-in-a-century storm they'd seen wipe half the hands off deck in a tower of water during their days as a swab. If he could have choked the words, 'You sound like you were there,' out of his throat, he would have worried that the Sumeragi would answer, 'I was,' in that same impossible tone.

A shiver ran down his back instead. But he wasn't going to get swept away in wild imaginings, not over something like the Sumeragi's tone of voice. That was how he said everything, from 'Good morning' to 'We're listing starboard' to 'You have mustard on your sleeve' (though he rarely said that to anyone but Kamui). He was just a serious young man with a heavy past on his mind. That was all. They each had their demons.

And heedless of whether or not Aoki was actually hearing him, he was still talking with his quiet, steely force. "The brother's orb was found, not so long ago. A singer picked it up outside Hundhammeren while she was looking for a ship that hasn't made port in six generations of men. Hardly a surprise that his orb found someone like her. He... was of a musical bent." Fighting back echoes in his head of Fai joking with Kamui about how people ought to know if immortal heroes were living among them, Aoki reminded himself over and over that they'd all grown up with stories about the Six Divine Warriors. Everyone knew the brother had been a bard before the Heavenly Twins had died. That the songs he could pull out of strings with his bow could even calm the North Wind was one of the handful of things every version of the legends agreed on.

That the Sumeragi spoke like he'd met the man was probably Aoki's ears deceiving him.

"I... hadn't realized anyone had found such a thing," he answered after he settled the calm back into his hands.

No amount of thinking could tell him if the Sumeragi's response was a light shrug of his shoulders or a heavy sigh.

"Maybe next time we put in near Hundhammeren, I'll go take a look, then."

The man shook his head. "It was stolen a week ago."

"We were in Marseilles a week ago," Aoki objected. A theft in Hundhammeren, he was certain, not even the Sumeragi could have witnessed. "And we've been sailing toward Chizeta ever since. Hundhammeren... that's in Sor-Trondelag. It's entirely the other way! How-"

"Word gets around."

Not like that, Aoki thought to himself, although he didn't say it to his shipmate. Then he remembered - Fai had mentioned that Princess Kotori had spoken to him in a dream the day before they'd reached Chizeta. He'd said about nothing but these negotiations, but His Grace made a habit of secrets. Now everything made so much more sense. Princess Kotori must have had a vision about this and told Fai everything the Sumeragi had seen fit to pass along now. It'd be just like Fai not to inform anyone besides their navigator about what would happen and to leave the Sumeragi to share whatever he thought worth sharing in whatever cryptic fashion he saw fit.

Well, now he felt marginally more at ease with the entire conversation. Not so at ease that he planned to ask the Sumeragi how his day had been the next time he came in from shore leave, but less like he'd been sharing a deck these past few years with a man who'd transformed into a star and then been cast out of the heavens back to Earth millennia ago - or whatever might have happened to inspire such tales. An awkward situation, that. If he'd had reason to think it were true, he might not have been able to look the Sumeragi in the eye ever again, and that was already difficult enough.

"I take it ninja were involved?" Aoki asked after the silence dragged on long enough to feel heavy. "That's why we need the other orb ourselves?"

"No one should have been able to steal it in the middle of the city like that - too much certainty that even a ninja would be caught trying - but Yuuko-san has her ways." Which Aoki took as a yes. Turning away from the shore for once, the Sumeragi's malachite gaze bore down into him. "There'll be no avoiding what's to come, I imagine. Better to be prepared."

Aoki tried and failed to drag his attention away from the strange warning and back toward the shore. "Of... course..."

"Flare aloft!" Segawa-kun called out from his lookout in the tops. All eyes went up to the sky, and Sorata's flare was glowing clear and strong. Aoki brought the spyglass back to his eye and saw the Princesses leaping onto the _Bravada_ to make sail with her crew. The black-clad stranger who'd joined the fight stayed by the bright orange and soft blue-grays of Sorata and Fai as the fighting ceased, which at least meant no unexpected enemies. That much was good.

He signaled the crew in the rigging. "Take us in!" He'd have to handle any dire warnings after their immediate crisis was resolved.

Sails opened to the wind, they pushed forward toward the beachside docks. Arashi and Karen made their way up from below as soon as they felt the ship moving through the water, all eyes following the _Bravada_ as she dashed for the other side of the bay.

"Pull in for the Captain and His Grace first!" Aoki called out to the crewman manning the wheel. "We can still catch the _Bravada_ before she makes land anywhere else." Out on the bow, Arashi gave orders to the sailors at the forefront to take cover and prepare to answer the Chizetans' barrage of arrows. Karen shouted at someone below decks to ready the guns. Then, as they neared, the mysterious figure turned around, and the crew murmured in chorus as everyone on deck could finally make out that he was a ninja - even without a spyglass, that was clear. With its help, Aoki could see more than that. "What the blazes? Is that _Kurogane_?"

By his side, the Sumeragi nodded and swiped the hat off his head with a sigh.

More secrets that His Grace had been keeping, Aoki assumed. No wonder he hadn't wanted Kamui here. Their First Mate might have leveled the entire country if he'd seen that particular ninja anywhere near their ship. Or near their King for that matter. Aoki couldn't say he expected anyone else to react much better, either. Not after Kurogane's previous visit.

Once they came close enough to the port for Sorata to leap into the longboat, they made ready to take all their men back on board, but Fai wasn't running. Instead, he was clinging to the irate ninja's arm, waving their captain off with a handkerchief. Arashi had already run up the bowsprit to call out, "What's _he_ doing here?!" - mostly at Sorata, since Fai was unlikely to give a real answer, although every sailor rolling his or her eyes on deck could tell their captain wasn't to blame for this.

Sorata waved his hands in unconditional surrender as the deck hands hauled up the longboat. "Sweetie, Honey... I'll explain everything as soon as _His Grace_ tells _me_ what's goin' on."

He should have expected the smack on the head. Sorata was one of the few people who could call Arashi 'Honey' and live, but even he couldn't do it unscathed.

Karen hauled herself up on the rigging, a flirt of chamois ruffling in the breeze where it peeked out under her corset, showing enough thigh over the top of her stocking that leg turned into hip and made at least three deckhands lose their balance. She'd never stop teasing him for how he used to be the same way - although he'd since learned to stop walking before admiring. And, unlike the deck hands, from his vantage point he had a perfect view of her swan-like neck as she waved for Fai's attention. "Your Grace! Are you sure this is the best time to bring a ninja on board?!"

"Eh?!" Putting his hand to his mouth, Fai made a show of looking around. "A ninja?! Where?" At the next turn of his head, he met Kurogane's scowl with a giggle. "Oh my heavens! It _is_ a ninja!" His Grace twirled up onto the black-clad man's shoulders like a child playing piggyback and hugged him around the throat. "Quick! Run for it! I'll hold him back!"

Whatever the ninja growled at him, Aoki couldn't hear, but it prompted Fai to peck him on the cheek and nuzzle his ear.

"But he knows we can't just leave him there!" Aoki gasped, turning to the Sumeragi. He was the only person on board with any chance of talking sense into the blond. "Not with a ninja like Kurogane!"

Their navigator sighed, shaking his head at the scene on the beach. "The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."

Aoki blinked at the answer. "As You Like It?"

"Let him have his fun." The Sumeragi swept his hat back onto his head and cut out down the stairs. He disappeared below decks as fast as a shadow running from the light, as he always did before battles he didn't consider worrisome. If trouble hit, he'd be back, and not before. And truth be told, keeping the ninja out of their way was at least as useful as anything Fai could do on board.

"Come about!" Aoki ordered. "Make way around those rocks and cut the _Bravada_ off at the mouth of the bay!" The sailors heaved and tacked for all they were worth, leaving their Pirate King behind on the beach, blowing kisses from his perch on the shoulders of a ninja that every one of them could vouch lived up to his notorious reputation. Aoki could only hope, wherever Kamui was in his treasure hunt, he was having a better day than this.

~/~

Kamui inched his pseudo-grip higher on the sheer stone walls, just barely keeping his toes out of range of the snapping alligators as they tried to set new height records with their jumps, and of the acid splashes from the liquid below when they fell back down. There was no floor here, and the walls themselves were too smooth to get a real grip, but the space between them was exactly wide enough for him to push out to both sides, with both arms and legs, and keep himself up with the pressure - as long as he didn't mind the strain it put on the rib he'd cracked two weeks ago fighting fucking Kurogane's fucking apprentice, Syaoran. Fucking ninja. He healed fast, and Subaru had stabilized it with one of his spells, so he wasn't worried that it'd give, but it still hurt like a bitch.

"Come on!" the red-haired ninja, Hikaru, yelled over her shoulder with an unconscionable level of cheer. "Just a little further!"

"I can see that!"

When all of this was over, he was going to talk Sorata into sailing back to Kaizuka where there were no fucking ninja anywhere, and maybe he'd even work things out so Fuuma was in port at the same time, and he, Kotori, and Fuuma could all get completely sloshed, pass out in the castle's banquet hall, and wake up to hot steak, all the fruit they could eat, and all the Prairie Oysters they needed. That'd be nice. And not a ninja in sight - not even ones who were claiming to be his prisoners.

The green-clad ninja was pushing along behind him, using a wind barrier to keep the alligators and acid at bay, and Saiki was last of all. Yuzuriha was at the front, dropping down onto the ledge waiting at the end of this stupid passageway. A few seconds later, the blue ninja dropped down next to her. They cleared to the sides so he and Hikaru could make their leaps, and they all cast their eyes back across the obstacles so far while they waited for their last party members. The villagers chasing them weren't too far back. This whole course - which the ninja had attributed to Clow Reed and thus far Kamui hadn't seen a reason to argue - was probably hard enough to stop a civilian in their tracks, but the people after them were pirates. Some of them would be good enough to make it.

They'd have to hurry if they wanted to get whatever treasure was waiting at the end, and they could think about fighting their way out afterwards.

Once all six of them were standing on the block, the ground quaked and shifted, dropping the stone down an inch. "Great," Blue muttered. "A time limit before we get tossed in the acid. So what's the next trick?"

Yuzuriha squinted in the magic firelight hovering ahead of them at the stone pillars rising out of the drink below. Unlike the last set of pillars, they were an easy distance apart, and all on a level as the lines dotted towards each wall, crossed back toward the center in an X, then reflected off the opposite walls to meet at a far platform. "I'm assuming it can't be as easy as it looks."

Under their feet, the platform rumbled and dropped another inch. Damn it. The gap looked less than twelve yards across. If the ceiling had been a little higher or he'd had a longer space to get up to a run, he might have been able to cross the whole pit in a single leap and skip whatever trick was sure to be waiting in those rocks. Whoever'd built this thing must have done it on purpose.

"There's something odd about the look of those rocks," Green mused next to her, and whipped out a lash of air magic against the pole in the center. From this distance, it all looked like rock to him, but as soon as her magic touched the pole, it cracked and fell between two alligators. "If all the rocks that look like that are going to break, the center cross no good, but I think the branches leading to the walls are stable."

"So we just have to run up the walls!" Hikaru bent her knees, ready to leap out onto the rocks. "No problem!"

Saiki frowned at the red-head. "You make that sound so easy. Just run along a vertical surface covered in condensation for sixteen feet. _No problem_."

Blue looked him up and down with an unimpressed sniff. "You can start by taking off your boots," she told him, and crouched down next to Hikaru to run the other direction. They sped off down the twin trails of pillars, straight at the walls, and launched off. Their first leap cleared a lot of the distance, and momentum carried them against the stone far enough for them to jump to the next set of safe pillars. It did look do-able, as long as his feet weren't slipping inside his boots and throwing off his aim.

But, damn it, he didn't want to take off his boots!

With a growl, Kamui checked the soles on the ninjas' tight slippers, as well as he could see them from here. They didn't look like they'd got acid burns, at least. He joined Yuzuriha and Saiki in stripping off their footwear and the socks underneath for good measure.

"I can take those for you." Green held out her hands for the boots Yuzuriha was trying to figure out how to stow, throwing a creepy smile back at Kamui's snarl. "I promise you'll get them back on the other side."

"We'd better," he answered. And he absolutely wasn't going to give her his hat.

Their shed gear disappeared into the jewel on the cuff on her wrist. At that least gave him some idea of their power level: too damn powerful to mess with right here, unless he wanted to risk one of his party dying. They'd be a high B or A-rank squad if they could tuck things away into storage like that. One of them could probably fight him evenly. Top of the line A-rank ninja and S-rank ninja like Kurogane could even shove objects into nowhere at all, but ninja who could use storage gems were more than trouble enough. You never knew what they could pull out, on top of them being first-class fighters. Cheating's what that was. And now they were standing here with no boots, on cold, wet stone, in the dark, trusting a ninja to give them their things back.

Brilliant.

Green and Yuzuriha went across next, and Yuzuriha only fumbled the landing the tiniest bit, recovering plenty well enough to run on to the other side. Kamui set himself up to go next, glancing at Saiki out of the corner of his eye. "Don't hesitate," he called out to the blond. "Just keep moving forward. I don't want to hear you say you can't do something a ninja can do."

"Aye, aye, sir."

He held his hat to his head and ran flat out, pushing as hard as he could with his back foot as he twisted his feet toward the wall and ignored the gravity pulling him down. Keeping his sights on the far shore, he leapt off the wall like pushing off the side of a boat towards salvage floating on the sea - and overshot his first mark. He landed off-square on the second pole, but shoved himself along until he stumbled onto the solid ledge. Saiki wasn't doing as well, he saw as he whipped around. Still hurtling forward, but close to dancing off the edge of the rock pillars. Reaching out, Kamui grabbed him by the hand just as Blue shot out a stream of water to grapple him around the waist. Between the two of them, they got him up, over, and steady on his feet.

Saiki leaned over, panting. "I'll get it next time."

Far away, voices and splashing alligators told him someone had reached the edge of the obstacle course and would be here after them before too long. "Let's worry about next time on the way back," Kamui said, turning towards the oncoming mess in their path. A jutting series of bars, like a ladder, running up to a dark tunnel - with the first bar about half the height of their main mast off the ground. They'd have to jump for it.

Good. Jumping, he could do.

Six scrambles up, six people crawling along the tunnel, and before long they could see light glimmering beyond that Hikaru hadn't magicked up with her fireballs. All that lay between them and the end of this god damned maze was a swinging chain and a climb up a sheet of knotted rope to one last platform. One at a time, without a word or any more pauses to deliberate, they each grabbed the chain on it's upswing, and sailed across the last pit. Blue was the first one to the rope wall, eyeing the knotwork for any traps and checking her footing before she made her way solidly enough up towards the rock. Yuzuriha scaled past her at a fast clip, reaching the top first of all, and helping pull the girl up while next Green, and then Saiki, each made their starts.

"Doesn't look hard at all," Hikaru said, and leapt from where she'd landed on the stone to a spot halfway up the ropes, waiting for the pitching to steady before she hauled up.

Kamui started up despite the swaying and sailed past her to the top. "Once you've climbed a ship's rigging in a gale or two, this is nothing." Without thinking, he held out his hand to help draw her up. Good thing nobody mentioned it. He didn't have a good explanation for him helping a ninja. Turning away before she could do something as embarrassing as thank him, Kamui took a good look at the end of the hallway - their goal, he hoped, but definitely the last spot on any map they had.

Four pillars across the entrance of a cave dug into the stone by human hands, nothing natural about it. He thought he could see writing and pictures on the walls beyond, lit in reds and oranges that shifted as if the light was a living thing, writhing through the space. And, unlike the dank, cool space around the alligator pit, the air here was warm - bordering on hot - and the rocks were perfectly dry.

They'd reached the volcano, he presumed, and there was something here. Whether it was what Fai said he wanted, or even what Fai really wanted underneath all the fairy tales, remained to be seen.

Kamui stood up next to Green and stretched out his neck and back. "Any pirate villagers who can get through that deathtrap will be here in just a few minutes. Now, I think I'd like my boots back if it's all the same to you."

~/~

The water cut off the hull as the _Dragon of Heaven_ tore through the bay. Sorata jumped up on the base of the main mast, grinning at the smart whip of his ship's colors in the air. All around, crew worked the ropes and sails and wheels to drive the finest ship on the seas as fast as she could go. Not the fastest, alas, as the mechanized wonders out of Autozam were a thing unto themselves, as the _Dragon of Earth_ lived to prove, but this ship could put anything under sail to shame with her least breath.

"Pull on, me hearties!" he egged on the gents and lasses at the ropes, half of them rolling their eyes at how he chose to elocute. But what did he care? He was a pirate captain, and nothing made him want to cackle with glee as much as the salt wind on his face while they bore down on a ship about to put up a fight they couldn't win but would pay hell tryin'. "Keep that jig dancin' quick!" Pulling himself up into the rigging to where he could see the point of the _Bravada_'s sail over the rocks, he sang out a tune to keep them hauling in tempo - just a mite faster than they'd been goin'. "I'm pinin' away for the one I can't see," he boomed out, to the roars of laughter from the crew. "A pain in me heart, she's a bloomin'!"

"But oh! My darlin', but oh!" they answered, the ship's wake churning faster and whiter behind the stern.

Now they were pulling ahead of Tatra and Tarta's sails, steady on forward. He belted the next line with a smile. "I'm wantin' to say all the words I can't say, and all o' me chances I've ruined!"

They'd be hitting the mouth of the bay with time to spare. "But oh! My darlin', but oh!" his crew sang again. The _Bravada_ would hear them coming and be on their guard, but where was the fun in a fight where you didn't see the mettle in their eyes before it began?

Arashi shot him a look so fiery it could've primed coal as she readied the sailors who'd be doing the shooting and boarding. He answered direct, singing his next lines straight to her eyes. "I'd fain spread our wings to the full, you and I! Oh, dreamin' as one, marathon through the sky!"

The whole boat erupted in the chorus around them then. "Yo ho, oh!" they cried in the heavy rough time of those as ever had pulled with a crew. "... And it's catch you, I'll catch you! So catch me, oh catch me!" Like that, they sailed their ship around the rock to see Princess Tarta on the _Bravada_, cursing their mothers, cooks, and capstans all with equal fury. Sorata pulled his hand to his mouth for the next line, "Avast! Turn your eyes, dear, and say that you love me!" hoping she and giggling Tatra would hear and catch the spirit. "Yo ho, oh! And it's nice to meet you, oh so good to see you! To your heart my love will fly-oh-fly! Fly away true!"

The Chizetan crew answered with arrows, as anyone might guess, and the exchange of fire started in strong. No cannon yet, not till there was no choice but to blow the old girl out of the water. When Karen aimed to sink, a ship was sunk. He could hear Tarta now, yelling, "You think this is a game, Sora-chan?! Your land-loving crew of soft-asses will learn to take us for serious when I tear you limb from weather-beaten good-for-nothing limb!"

"_Language_, Tarta dear!" the elder sister tsked.

Sorata was one of the first to grab a rope from on high and swing over to the _Bravada_'s decks, knocking one bowman out cold on his way to the princesses. This was between him and Chizeta. Steel clashed against sharp steel, him and Tarta leaping from deck to deck around her fine little craft. He was fore, Arashi was aft, testing how well Tatra could work that whip in close quarters like these. She did have quite a hand with that whip, Sorata wasn't ashamed to admit he knew well, but she'd never seen the way his newer crewmate could move. From still as stone to a lightning dash and strike, so a man was like to think he'd been swinging at air and only thought a woman had been standing there - all the while, she had the drop on him from above. As true a mirage as a real Fata Morgana hanging on the horizon.

A slice came in a bit too close to his ear, and he shook his eyes away from the terrifying grace of the woman he'd win over one day (though, alas, not yet). He had his own fight to win.

Then the gasps of the crew on both sides stopped him and Tarta in mid-swing, and they glanced out to where the bay turned into the wide oceans. There, rising out of the deep, was the one thing no ship wanted to see: one of the curling tentacles of a monster octopus reaching towards them, and the other seven legs behind, sucker cups on each stretch of the underside larger than a man's head. If he judged that length a-right, one of those legs'd be twice the length of his main mast, if not more.

That one wasn't just a monster. It was a thing out of legend. There hadn't been one that size spotted in over a hundred years, and it was already close enough to have grabbed each ship by the bow.

"Not your cutlasses!" Sorata screamed at his sailors across the way, while the Chizetans who'd been fighting them a moment before told them the same. "Don't make it angry!"

"But how are we going to get at its head before it cracks the ship in half?!" Tarta yelled.

True enough, it hadn't shown its eyes above the water, and the beams of the hull were already creaking from the pressure. But Sorata shrugged. "We'll have to run up the arms and get it under water if needs be. I think it's got enough meat there to balance-"

An abrupt cease in the yelling on the deck of the _Dragon of Heaven_ cut him off, and he and every other pirate on the rig turned their eyes to see. A white coat billowed and rippled in the wind, while men and women of every description stepped clear of the Sumeragi's path. His eyes were locked on the sea monster. Seemed that had been enough to rouse him to the middle of a battle when he usually left such things to them as found the rush of battle to be a thrill.

The man turned his closed eyes to the heavens. Sorata could have sworn he even sighed. Then, watching the calm of the water where the creature's head would be, he raised two fingers to his lips like he was praying. When he stretched out his hand toward the beast, lines of shining light traced out a pentagram on the water and shot up in a five pointed column, the head of the octopus rearing above the waves as its arms pulled back from the ship. The monster curled, locked inside the cage of light, while the rest of them stood by watching.

"Or that works, I guess," Sorata murmured. Just when he thought he knew the things that man could do.

Tarta turned on him with three times the fury in her eyes as before. "Sora-chan..." He chuckled to try calming her down, but kept his sword at the ready, since he knew how well that always worked. "What in the bloody hells _else_ have you barnacle-chippers been holding back?! I told you to take us seriously, you turncoat!"

He dodged to the side as her scimitar dug three inches into the rail behind where he'd been standing, and Sorata let out a sigh. Signs pointed to this turning into _one of those days_.


	5. Sex on the Beach 13

_**DISCLAIMER:**__ All CLAMP stories were created by CLAMP. Characters have been adapted without authorization or approval, and I am making no profit from their use._

"Dark and Stormy" is the fifth story in my Pirates vs. Ninjas alternate universe, "Fifteen Mokona on a Dead Man's Chest". **Reading the previous stories is not required.** That said, if you would like to read the stories in order to take advantage of the continuity, details are on my profile page.

_**WARNING:**__ involves sex with mild dominance themes and emotional issues. This chapter has been modified from the original version to meet content guidelines._

* * *

**[Sex on the Beach #13]**

_Mix 3/4 oz. each peach schnapps, Midori, and coconut rum in a hurricane glass._  
_Combine with 1 oz. each pineapple juice, orange juice, and cranberry juice. Serve with a straw._  
_As always, watch out for sand._

He took it as a good sign that the big, strong ninja let the _Dragon of Heaven_ sail out of jumping range before he flipped Fai from his back onto the beach. Sun-baked sand tried to burn Fai's neck, but he didn't flinch. The fire in those red eyes was so much hotter, the hands holding his wrists so much rougher, the arch of the body so very enticing. Did he want to play first and question his ninja later, after his guard relaxed, or did he want his immediate satisfaction from knowing how his gentleman caller had tracked his ship so easily?

Well, whichever order, they'd start the same way. Fai licked his lips and stretched out, catching a twitch in the ninja's throat as he tried oh-so-hard not to lose focus. "Oh ho, Kuro-tan's angry!" he laughed. "What a treat."

"Nobody asked for your opinion."

"Am I wrong?"

Pulling his body up inch by inch - slowly, to let his would-be captor decide whether to play sweet or saucy - Fai drew close enough to feel his breath against his neck. In Marseilles, seeing the ninja on the docks, he'd felt his heart pound. Actually _pound_, rattling his ribs in a way he hadn't felt in years. That instant had recast everything he'd sworn to Subaru and Kakyou: that this one was just like the rest, that he wouldn't lose his heart and get himself in trouble... that he wouldn't get them all in trouble. He'd realized then he might have been wrong. Now, Kuro-run's breath finding his lips tasted like two weeks of restless nights marinated in unexpected dreams, and he was sure.

But trouble didn't disappear because you ignored it. If this was what he wanted, this was what he'd take, and he'd take it all before his fluttering heart unlocked trouble they couldn't handle.

Calloused fingers traced his jaw as the ninja twisted it for a better view of his cheek. The cheek said ninja had scraped open when last time had gotten a little rough. "Not even a mark. How..."

"It looked worse than it was. But thanks for worrying, lover." The tightness between them as Kuro-yan's red eyes locked on his promised so much. Oh, they both wanted answers, but the ninja would want more if he got a reason. Or an excuse. Fai wove his fingers through the hand on his face. Before, Kuro-pyon had wanted to play a game of fondness. Maybe the shivers in Fai's spine were real, but it was still a game. Why not let him think he was winning?

"You're not here to save a princess this time," he whispered, then rose to his feet, wandering toward the dock as he brushed sand off his clothes.

"I'm not here to play, either."

"I didn't think you'd be back so soon. If you're not careful, all this attention will go to my head."

"Tsch." A sword settled in a sheath with a soft click, and Fai turned to see the last trace of Ginryuu disappear into ninjaspace. Cloak and headgear came off and vanished as well. Disarming wasn't Fai's concern, though - it the sudden lack of aggression in the air. Had his anger been an act? Or was this the act? His ill-advised crush stepped close enough for Fai to feel his body's heat, and the uncertainty made him reel. Chills through his skin hinted how easy it'd be to lean into the man's chest, to let strong arms wrap around his shoulders. Even though they hadn't known each other long enough for his closeness to feel so comfortable, even though comfort was the kind of habit-forming feeling he was trying to dispel, he wanted it so much, it scared him into silence.

With a careless sideways glance, his ninja sighed. "I can't tell if you're a jackass who abandons his crew to amuse himself, or a jackass who takes a fall nobody asked you to take."

"Either way, you can't approve." He walked his fingers up a sturdy armored chestplate over a sturdier chest. "But you _don't_ plan to take me prisoner and drag me back to your castle? No interrogations this time?"

The warrior snapped Fai's hand away by the wrist, tight but with no pain, as if he'd taken care not to wrench it even though his manner betrayed none. "I'm observing. If I tell you what I want to know, you'll make sure you never say it."

"You make me sound contrary!"

"Then give me back my coat."

"I'd rather not." He slipped the ninja's grip - too easily, somebody wasn't trying to hold him at all - and pulled the lapels to resettle the coat on his shoulders. "This isn't _your_ your coat. It's _my_ your coat. You left it after you had your way with me, and that makes it mine." Trailing back along the surfline, Fai pulled a deck of cards out of his vest. "Maybe I'll play you for it. Strip Old Maid? Last one wearing clothes gets the coat?"

"You'll cheat," Kuro-puu answered with a smirk. But he followed, grabbing the jacket under contention near the waist and pulling Fai in close.

And what was he supposed to do, except let his own arms fall around the ninja's neck? His heart pounded again as their noses nearly touched and the urge to taste a kiss ran like chocolate down his tongue. "I don't mind if you cheat, too."

Holding him fast with one arm, his lover knocked the cards from Fai's hand. "In that case, you might as well strip down. I cheat to win."

He meant it, too. The way he kissed was definitely cheating, or at least he didn't abide by any rules. Just two weeks after they'd first clashed in a hot rush, the ninja shouldn't have known how to slip inside his guard so naturally, to tease his mouth and clutch him in just the right spots to make his legs melt to the ground.

He'd ask questions later, he thought, unbuckling the ninja's armor. A gasp became a moan while those lips profaned his skin in the most beautiful ways. "Ah!" He sucked a ragged breath in. "Kuro-sama... are you _sure_... your mission calls for observing me this closely?" His lover showed no hint of trying to keep his head. Maybe he'd learned that it wasn't worth the attempt. Hands clutching sand, Fai skimmed his chest forward. "Not that I mind distracting you."

"If there's an easy way to keep you in sight, I won't stop just because it's fun."

Fai felt a heavy shift of fabric across his back and turned to check. Well, well - Kuro-kyon had a fold of his coat in his grip. It'd come off of one arm entirely without his noticing, and the ninja was inches from pulling it free of Fai's person. They couldn't have that.

He sat up straight, tugging the jacket back onto one shoulder and free of plundering hands. "I told you, lover. That's mine." He shrugged his shirt and waistcoat off his free arm, his gold key on its chain around his neck swinging as he pulled the coat on over bare skin, then freed the other arm to toss his less necessary clothes aside. His Kuro-danna coat wasn't going anywhere.

Stealing to his feet, he sauntered down into the surf and unlaced his pants. "The water's warm. Care to join me?"

The dark haired man drew himself up from the ground like a sovereign god. Seconds were like lifetimes, watching him stroll closer, casting his trousers aside and gleaming gloriously naked in the tropical air. They melted into another kiss as the waves surged around their hips.

"You're going to give me that coat back," his ninja love-growled in his ear.

Fai laughed and held his lover's shoulders, throwing his legs around his waist. Wayward kisses strayed into Kuro-pon's salt-sprayed hair while the man's tongue licked his throat, and he whispered, "Not. Today."

Off in the distance, a tower of white light shot up out of the ocean. Both of them paused and looked, but there was a rocky strip of land jutting out of the harbor, blocking the view no matter how well they could both project their eyesight. "What the hell..." the ninja murmured.

It was Subaru, Fai knew. Subaru's magic was unique, and he never used it without more reason than the _Bravada_. But the spell was so far from urgent, so far from his full power, the ship's navigator probably could have cast it in his sleep. Nothing to worry about there. Fai traced a finger down the channel at the edge of his lover's bicep, circling the hollow of his elbow. "Any guards left in Tatra and Tarta's camp will come running. If you'd rather find some place we won't be interrupted-"

_Someone's_ probing tongue stole his words away. "Maybe we'll put on a show instead," Kuron-ron murmured against his mouth. Between that, and his back hitting the column of the dock rising out of the water, Fai had all the reasons he needed not to argue.

Today was going more or less exactly how he'd planned.

~/~

The hall inside the volcano roiled with molten light. Golds and ambers shifted on the walls as if they were standing inside an aquarium walled with lava - which they basically were, Hikaru reflected. She tapped Eagle's signaly widget (so her boyfriends would know she was still safe) as discreetly as she could and took a closer look at her surroundings. Streams of magma flowed hot in channels over their heads and down the walls, but never dripped or melted the rocks. In the dim, shifting light, she could almost make out carvings of figures along one wall, and the wall Umi-chan was studying looked more like the night sky. The ceiling, where Fuu-chan had aimed her camera, had a six-spoked wheel full of inscriptions but nothing clear enough to decipher. The back wall looked more like a puzzle.

Hikaru poked at a stream of magma, feeling the heat twist around her finger - but oddly, not the stuff itself. The air warped with it, like a thick, transparent sheet of taffy that wouldn't break. It had to be old, too, given the archaeological look of the room, but the magic was still going strong. Once in a generation or two, there might be a spellcaster that good.

A smack knocked her hand away from the channel. And Kamui-san's eyebrows could twitch almost as much as Watanuki-sempai's! She hadn't thought anybody else could manage that!

"What the hell are you doing?!" he yelled.

"Just testing it."

"It's all right," Fuu-chan called out, twisting a dial on her camera. "Hikaru-san is fireproof."

Hikaru nodded at him, wiping a trace of rock dust off on her skirt. "It's a special duty requirement."

"Well, I'm sorry if it makes more sense to poke hot lava with a _stick_ and not your goddamn finger!"

"Magma," Yuzuriha-chan called out, pulling off her hat to take a close look at the carved people. "It's not lava till it gets to the surface."

"Do I look like I care what you call the super-heated liquid rocks?!" Her new pirate friend pointed outside, looking so super-heated himself that the air twitched on his behalf. "There's a horde of angry villagers on our tails, out for blood over the _fictional_ magical orb we're here to steal, and there's not a single object, pedestal, or door anywhere in this place! It's a dead end! We need a defensive line _before_ we start poking things!"

Serving with someone as expressive as Kamui-san must be fun, Hikaru thought, what with the way his eyes flashed and his coat swirled when he huffed off.

"It might not be a dead end," Saiki-san said. In the furthest corner of the back wall, he stood by a crazy, patchwork circle, and his cheeks had flushed bright red. "Dioscuri lore is... kind of my hobby. This is Clow's magic circle, or it would be if it weren't all twisted around. I'm guessing it'll activate when we get it aligned."

Everyone joined him, and even Kamui-san only glanced back over his shoulder once. From up close the sunburst and moon sigils on a twelve-pointed star were clear, just cut into six concentric circles and turned about all wonky. The carving was deep enough to decipher, unlike the rest of the walls, both for the image and a row of squiggly letters above.

Umi-chan huffed, twisting her mouth into a scowl. "That's definitely Clow Reed's circle, although I'm not wildly confident that it does anything good. Fuu, can you read what it says?"

Resettling her glasses, Fuu-chan blew some of the dust off the ancient script. "It looks like it says, 'Game over, insert six coins to play'. It's not the normal word for 'coin' in any dialect this far south, but some isolated islands to the north use it, and the context fits. Or would, if game centers had existed two thousand years ago. The striations in the rock indicate carving tools no one's used in at least that long."

"'Game over' doesn't sound good," Yuzuriha-chan sighed. "But if we find a spot for coins, I've got coins."

Frowning, Saiki-san narrowed his eyes at the text. "Hang on. What word for 'coin' is that?"

"Muhara," Fuu-chan answered, pointing out a series of squiggles on the rock. "Why? Does it show up in the lore you've studied?"

He shook his head. "No. But my uncle did a lot of traveling down here." Saiki-san closed his eyes and breathed deep. "In one of the towns, he ran into trouble... His dictionary was a couple hundred years out of date, I think - the locals wanted money, and his books defined the word as 'carved picture'. This isn't _that_ word, is it?"

Fuu-chan touched her storage gem and pulled out a leather-bound tome twice the size of her head. Murmuring, she flipped through the pages, finally stopping midway through. "Well, goodness. That's exactly what it used to mean, and it makes more sense for the situation. Do you think we're expected to select carvings from the walls, or to make six of our own?"

Kamui-san glowered at everyone in turn while Fuu-chan put her books away. "How the hell could somebody make a game center pun _thousands of years ago_, before there even _were_-!" Everyone turned to answer, but he cut them all off. "Right! Clow Reed! Fine! Somebody call me when this starts making sense. I'm going to _watch the door_!"

He had a point, but what could you do? Knowing the future and making stupid jokes were Clow's biggest areas of expertise.

Outside, the grunts and screams echoing from the obstacle course gave way to the grate of the platform rock before the wall-running bit sinking under a crowd's weight. "Right," Umi-chan declared, walking over to the wall with all the pictures on it. "If it's over here, let's find it. The rabble outside are getting closer."

But before she could get a good look at anything, the scrape of stone sounded again - this time from under Umi-chan's feet. Hikaru's blue-haired friend looked down at the square sunk into the floor, blinking at a line of magma filling the engraving in front of her. "Okay, hold on! I _know_ I walked right over this spot when I came in! Someone needs to tell that bastard Clow that life is_not_ an RPG, and tech ought to work even if you _haven't_ spotted his plot device!"

The old-fashioned linework didn't make a lifelike face, but from the way the woman held her pipe, Hikaru knew what she was seeing. The swarm of butterflies outlined in glowing, flowing heat, was just confirmation. "You got the Dimension Witch! That's perfect, Umi-chan. You've got long hair, just like Lady Yuuko!"

Her friend giggled, "Oh, to be Lady Yuuko, I'd need more booze. And maybe a Watanuki-sempai," she added with a wink.

By the door, Kamui-san scowled into the corridor. "Unless your boss is more than two thousand years old, that's not her on the wall. How many times do I have to say that the Six Divine Warriors weren't real?"

"Here's another!" Fuu-chan called out, sinking into a switch halfway across floor. Magma crept into the shape of a broad-shouldered man sweeping a long scythe as Fuu-chan jumped in place and clapped her hands. "I think I'm the Barrows-Guard!"

Yuzuriha-chan and Saiki-san took big, sliding steps away from her, and Kamui-san spun around with his eyes wide. Pointing at the image, he snarled, "See? _Our_ Barrows-Guard never uses a scythe! He's not the same guy!"

"I dunno," Yuzuriha-chan murmured, inching closer to the image. "That stuff around him looks an awful lot like sakura petals, and you can't say Sakurazuka-san doesn't have _those_."

Kamui-san abandoned the door and stalked over to the wall while the magma filled in a storm of sakura petals and a sprawling tree. Rivers of magma branched up from both images toward the ceiling, but Kamui-san's eyes never left the image of the Barrows-Guard. "No. It can't be. I won't let him-"

"I want to be the Snow Fox!" Hikaru and Yuzuriha-chan yelled out together, both running to the wall to spy out the wizard's figure.

"Jinx!" Yuzuriha-chan giggled. "Can't talk till Kamui says your name!"

Not saying a word, Hikaru pointed at the switch clicking under her feet and grinned. The picture of a man with a crystal-tipped staff and a blizzard swirling around his head had already started to glow on the wall. With a sigh, the pirate girl stepped back, tripping a switch of her own.

Her figure was sitting on one of about a score of floating bubbles, with a farseeing-eye sigil carved over his head. "Well, the Dreamseer would've been my second pick!" Yuzuriha-chan said, and grinned at Kamui-san and Saiki-san. "I guess that makes you the Heavenly Twins! Not that you look much alike... Oh, but Kamui! At least you've got purple eyes! That's their big thing, right?"

"No way," Umi-chan objected while Saiki-san hunted along the wall and Kamui-san tromped away to put his back to everything. "The Twins definitely had green eyes. It's in, like, every other line. What books were you reading?"

Yuzuriha-chan shrugged. "I just know my grandmother's bedtime stories. Saiki, you've read all the old lore, right?"

"Well..." His face contorted into an apology. "The oldest texts always say the same thing. 'Eyes like alexandrite'. It's kind of ambiguous."

As he spoke, the stone under his feet and the square where Kamui-san had been standing both gave way. The dark-haired pirate whipped around, growling softly. Glowing lines on the wall filled in two last figures: a man, seated with an instrument balanced on his knees, bow raised to play; and a woman dancing with a trailing scarf. A five-pointed star hovered between one of the sister's palms and the hand where the brother held his bow. Behind and above them, a light rain of feathers filled the wall, and Yuzuriha-chan lit up while Kamui-san glowered. "Green eyes or purple," the pirate girl announced, "I still say that's perfect. Saiki looks like he's closer to the brother... Does that make you the sister?"

"I'm not having this conversation," Kamui-san spat. Like the rest of them, he watched the magma. The trails stretching upwards from each of the six figures had all converged on another figure holding a sunburst-tipped staff: Clow Reed, Hikaru thought to herself, as if they hadn't been able to tell.

"Hmm." Fuu-chan's eyes tracked the molten rock pushing towards the ceiling and the blocks of stone moving around it like a shifted-picture puzzle. "It looks like stepping on all six switches together displaced enough magma to trigger a reaction. I hope it's the right one."

From there, the lines turned inside the wheel above their heads, filling in letters and images - some that Hikaru recognized, like the first meeting between the Dioscuri and the Four Guardians of Heaven, others more obscure. On the star wall across from them, particular constellations and asterisms started to glow, outlined with their own trails stretching up like the branches on a tree. "Wow," Yuzuriha-chan murmured. "And what are the chances there happen to be six of us here?"

"There is no chance!" Umi-chan and Fuu-chan chorused together. "There is only inevitability!" Hikaru would have joined them, but she was jinxed, so she just joined them in miming Lady Yuuko's usual pose.

The pirates stared at all three of them, blinking. Umi-chan shrugged. "Something our boss likes to say. Now, is this supposed to be a game? Because this may be the most boring game _ever_. Where is my magic sword and my horde of zombies?"

Fuu-chan pointed at the text glowing around the outside of the ceiling. "We might be in the introductory sequence. Let me see... I think it says, 'Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale: a tale of a fateful trip that started from this tropic port-'"

"It's the story of how the Six Divine Warriors went to the Heavens and met the stars!" Kamui-san snarled. "We all know that story!" He turned his face to the seventh figure above their six and yelled, "Clow Reed, if you're listening, just show us the stupid orb!"

"This... isn't the usual story." Fuu-chan adjusted her glasses, using a wind spell to blow some dust off the glowing text outside a panel crowded with new figures, mostly indistinct and centered around two men. One had a crown showing five points on his forehead, and one looked like he'd just gotten out of the shower and had only had time to grab a towel. Fuu-chan's lips moved silently, and she snapped another few pictures. Finally, she spoke. "This is where they would meet the stars, but the word isn't 'sitara' or 'taraka'. It's 'ashura'."

"Meaning what?" Umi-chan asked.

"Demon," Fuu-chan and Saiki-san answered, both with the same small quietness to their voices.

~/~

Plans, Fai knew, sometimes had to be adjusted for scale. Sometimes, you went looking for a good, solid lay, but what you got would make an earthquake feel like a see-saw. It was lucky no one had come to the dock yet - all the voices so far had come from the woods, from sailors running to other piers with boats they could sail. If they had come here, Fai might not have been able to stand against them.

No one before this had really believed they could take more than the moment, the passing satisfaction. But when this man pulled him up by the coat, pawed Fai's boneless form around, face to face, to drag him into a kiss... When this man stole into his mouth like he was coming home and groaned in answer to Fai's scratches on his back, Fai knew _this man_ believed he could take everything.

That wasn't in Fai's plans.

"Kuro-sama..." he sighed. "You didn't just stumble on the _Dragon of Heaven_ in Marseilles, did you?" Fai murmured around nipping bites. "Were you _hunting_ for me? Following my boat's not an easy thing to do."

Somewhere in his lover's moans, he listened for a hint to slip, for the man to brag about how he'd done it, but the only answer he got (for the moment) was a chuckle. Then the ninja rolled him back on his shoulders.

"It ain't easy to see a ninja when he's hiding either, _Your Majesty_," his lover murmured, sliding a hand up Fai's hip. "Something tells me you took the trouble because you wanted to see me again. But it's a hell of a trick."

"My proper... style," Fai gasped, arching into his touch. "... is... '_Your Grace_'."

"Hold still," that voice told him. His body obeyed. Shuddering, gasping, he obeyed. "Look at me." And when he forced his eyes open, red eyes as sharp as knives looked back at him from a face turned feral with lust. Kuro-sama pushed forward, their bodies together, their faces together, the shock of pleasure making Fai's eyes roll closed again.

"_Look_. _At me_."

He did.

"You act like everything's a game, but somewhere in that pretty head, you know some things aren't." As much as Fai wanted to look away, those red eyes held him locked, burning the moment into his consciousness. "I'm telling you right now, I'm one of them. Remember that."

"Is... that so?"

The sound of footsteps approaching, of all times, came then. Fai knew they weren't going to stop. It wasn't an option. But he hadn't expected the sudden planar shift as the ninja secreted them away in the world of shadow, out of sight any normal pair of eyes. The two pirates running on the dock above them wouldn't know how to shatter the illusion even if they'd known to try.

Kuro-sama whispered in his ear, "Keep quiet, and they won't find you."

And then... There was no more world, no more sand to feel under his shoulders. His lip tasted of blood. Swallowing his screams had its consequences, but a bit lip he could handle. With their mouths trapped in some amalgamation of kiss and clash, his body filled with the roll of thunder, and he felt himself come unmade. All the awareness he had left crashed into oblivion.

The rise of the surf washing around his head called him back to awareness again, then he heard his own breath, piecing together the softest of moans as his shoulders, his spine, his hips all sank into the beach. His dizzy head still felt like he was flying. His muscles couldn't pull him upright yet, but Fai managed to open his eyes. Their visitors were still on the dock, shouting something about getting to the far cape. They'd be gone soon, then. He turned his eyes down to the broad shoulders lying across his chest, rising and falling as slow, deep breaths blew across Fai's throat. Breath resolved into the press of a kiss. Laying close turned into a curling of limbs. All too soon, Fai had to tell himself they weren't cuddling - he was looking for an opening to get his answers, that was all. He didn't cuddle. He stalled until prying ears were gone, since he didn't have Subaru's talent for making a conversation unhearable to anyone but his intended audience. It didn't matter how mindlessly secure he felt, trailing his fingertips up a shoulder blade to curl over the man's shoulder. It didn't matter how a kiss to his fingers made him bury a smile in his lover's cheek. None of that mattered, not as long as he had other reasons to be here.

But, oh, he was going to cherish the sun-warmed, ocean-washed scent of 'Kuro-rin Fucked Silly'. Fai could already imagine summoning this memory like a blanket when he wanted to drift off to sleep with good dreams.

They chuckled together as the Chizetans ran off, none the wiser to their shenanigans. "Admit it," Fai whispered. "You put a tracker on my ship so you could find me again. Where'd you hide it?"

"If you want to know where it is, you better look for it."

Which meant there was something to look for. Kuro-pon didn't sound like he was lying. He didn't sound scared his trick would get found, either.

And, clearly, Fai had to do more to lower the ninja's guard. He let the roll of their bodies pull him on top of that stunning package of trim muscle and complete unselfconsciousness lying naked under the sun, then Fai pushed their noses together and grinned. "_You_... Last time, you were good, but not as good as _that_. People don't change that much in two weeks."

"Two weeks ago, I was tied to a chair."

"Not when you were interrogating me in my cabin, you weren't."

The ninja shrugged and draped his arms along Fai's sides. "Now I know you like sex too much to kill me halfway through. Everybody's better when they're not watching for a knife in their back."

Fai thought he felt the world stop dead. He strained to hear some hint of a lie in the man's tone, but all he could find was a simple, direct admission that the legendary, undefeatable _Kurogane_ had come this far into enemy territory and decided to drop all attention for guards and defenses - to concentrate on _fucking him_. But that had to be a lie. Just like all the soul-searching gazes when they'd met on board the ship had to have been an act. Just like the intensity when his lover kissed his forehead and stroked his hair had to be an act right now. Finding his way under the man's armor was a goal, something Fai needed to do to accomplish his own ends - not something the Black Hawk of Suwa would hand over just because his enemy got on his knees once or twice to make supplication in a fit of passion. He was certain, his Kuro-myu had to be playing the tender lover just as much as Fai knew he himself was playing the grateful beloved. So why did he suddenly want to hide his face in the crook of his companion's neck, where those red eyes couldn't see him, and why did the steady pulse beating against his ear make him quake?

"I think I'm going to disappoint you," Fai murmured. His words had slipped past his tongue without giving him a chance to consider them. He kept doing that whenever the two of them got into these situations. Those words didn't sound anything like what he wanted to say. But as he heard them, he could imagine the disappointed expression his Kuro-sama might make when Fai did whatever he had to do so the ship could get away clean once Kamui had the orb.

And Fai _would_ do whatever he had to do. His slip of the tongue was true. He couldn't care - it couldn't matter, not to him - but it was true. Someday, probably sooner than later, he'd be a disappointment to the man who'd followed him here.

"Don't decide that on your own," his lover growled. The rumble worked its way from Fai's chest through to his back. "I'll take my chances."

He took a deep breath and set his smile back in order, pecking the ninja on the cheek. "Chance might not enter into it. Maybe it's inevitability. We both know someone who says that, don't we?"

"She's a know-it-all bitch, and I don't trust her as far as I can throw her."

He laughed, almost honestly, and traced circles on the man's chest. "She is a bitch, isn't she? But if you're thinking of falling in love with me, it's probably a bad idea."

Lacing their fingers together, his ninja pulled Fai's hand to rest against his cheek. It was easier to meet his eyes now, when he narrowed them and shot jibes instead of turning up his countenance to full smolder. "In the two weeks I've known you, you've been annoying as hell and a hell of a fuck. Does that sound like love?"

"I don't know. It's not my area of expertise." Fai ran his other hand into the salt-stiffened and sand-frosted mess of his lover's hair. "But I do think Tarta and Tatra will have a portable shower in the tent they've so thoughtfully abandoned. We should get cleaned up so you can take me into town and buy me lunch." He giggled as the oh-so-serious warrior's eyebrow twitched. "Come on, Kuro-tcho!"

"It's _Kurogane_."

"You've had me three times now, which activity - _however pleasant_ - is around four fifths of the time we've spent together. Hardly a flattering picture of your intentions!"

"It takes two, _Your Majesty_."

"You should definitely buy me lunch. Unless you had other plans?" He knew he'd won as soon as the ninja sighed and shook his head. Objective: Keep Kuro-tan engaged and away from his crew's escapades - Achieved!

"I was here to keep an eye on you anyway," he answered. "Like I said, I don't mind if you make it easy." Then he gripped Fai by the arm and whispered in his ear. "But so you know... don't think you can shake me. That's not gonna happen."

Fai kissed his nose. "Sounds like fun."


	6. Swordfish

_**DISCLAIMER:**__ All CLAMP stories were created by CLAMP. Characters have been adapted without authorization or approval, and I am making no profit from their use._

"Dark and Stormy" is the fifth story in my Pirates vs. Ninjas alternate universe, "Fifteen Mokona on a Dead Man's Chest". **Reading the previous stories is not required.** That said, if you would like to read the stories in order to take advantage of the continuity, details are on my profile page.

* * *

**[Swordfish]**

_Retrieve that highball glass you keep in the icebox for hot summer days._  
_Swirl with 1 oz. anisette._  
_Add 1 oz. fine light rum._  
_Top off with soda, lime, and simple syrup to taste._  
_Ice optional._

No doubt the shopkeepers in Saijaan assumed that the Pirate King currently locked in a war with their Princesses would be on his ship with the rest of the battle, not sweeping his puff-feathered hat off his head to get a look at a pawn shop's display. If they hadn't, today's 'date' would've been a lot more trouble. As it was, all the locals kept their distance from the strangers with Northern clothes and Northern paleness, but no one drew a sword. It probably helped that Kurogane had stowed his armor in favor of something more casual.

And, as much as he hated to admit it, it helped that the man on his arm wasn't using his real name.

"Look, Kuro-tan! Tiger clips!" The blond picked up a set of wooden combs with ornaments dangling from the end, clipping a lock of his hair on either side of his head. "Like the queen of the summer festival would wear. Should I get them?"

"It's your head, but I don't think they'll fit under your hat."

The pirate plucked them out again, rolling his eyes. "Don't be silly. They're for Sakura-chan! They'd look so cute on her."

They would, actually. Although a potato sack would look cute on Princess Tomoyo's foundling. She was cute, end of story.

And his fair-haired pseudo-sweetheart had more interest than Kurogane had expected in a girl with no past and no memory - more interest than most pirates had in the lives of former hostages, even the ones who were lethally cute. None of the questions over lunch had given away what Fai wanted with the girl, just like none of Kurogane's answers had given away critical information about his Princess's castle or affairs. That meant she was more important than a ransom. When he finished this trip, finding out where the girl had come from was moving up in Kurogane's priorities.

"You'll take them back, won't you?" the pirate asked, pressing his find into Kurogane's hand.

The man wasn't really asking a question. His cocky pout was one more mask in the neverending parade of seeming-careless flirtations. The way the tips of his fingers shied a stiff half an inch away from trailing down Kurogane's palms, though... That had echoes of the way he'd trembled when he'd said not to fall in love. The Pirate King was a liar, Kurogane knew. Not the natural kind who lied like breathing - he was the polished kind who'd learned to lie for a reason - but he wasn't the best liar Kurogane had ever met. His game was distraction. Someone who knew how to keep his eye on target could see where the act had a couple mended holes, like the quiver in the blond's voice today. He sounded like someone who needed to believe the reasons for his lies, and was having trouble doing it.

Good. When his smile was fake, he looked like he was numbering a warehouse of his own sins like a debtor counting a mountain of bills in pennies. If the pirate decided his reasons were shit enough to give up his act, maybe...

No, this little love story couldn't go anywhere. He had duties, and the blond was on the wrong side of them. 'Maybe' was for another world.

Kurogane studied the clips in his hand, wondering when he'd realized that he assumed he'd be able to trust the Pirate King in the end. It defied judgment. Not even the strange flashes he'd seen of the future - the ones Princess Tomoyo thought came from his mother's Dreamseer blood, triggered by whatever change the blond said would take a person who got too close to 'demons' - had given him a reason to think that. He thought his sense would start working when he'd made his move on the beach, that his instincts wouldn't let him relax in the blond bastard's arms. Instead, he was even more certain this man wasn't his enemy, despite him taking the little Princess hostage when they'd met.

It was stupid to trust him, Kurogane thought, closing his hand around the present this pirate wanted to send to the girl he'd kidnapped. But he did. And his instincts had never failed him this badly before. "She'll get them after I check 'em for traps," he answered.

Fai threw his arms around Kurogane's neck and stole another kiss. As much as you could call it theft when the other party didn't put up a fuss. "You're the best, lover," the blond whispered. "Tell Syaoran-kun hello for me, too!"

"Are you gonna pay for these things or not?"

He let himself get as easy as he wanted with holding the pirate by the waist, knowing the honesty threw his companion off-balance. Sure enough, the embrace started as supple as fine leather and ended with Fai blushing through a sideways glance and dancing a few feet away. The blond played like he was only flagging down the shopkeeper. Kurogane tried not to wonder what could make him so scared. Where the pirate meant to go from here mattered more than the past, and jumping to theories could stain what you see so you never see the truth. For now, Kurogane was just watching.

He was watching when the pirate bartered the shopkeeper down to a steal, and their conversation turned to the summer festival. "They'll clip the festival queen's hair up with flowers, just so," the old man was saying. "Ever seen it, me boy? No, I think I'd have marked ye. Ye're a sight a man don't forget, ah?"

"Oh, I don't know about that! But this is our first time in the area."

Lies, Kurogane thought to himself. The blond had already known what the clips were for, and at lunch he'd ordered a mix of chopped fruits with a specificity that meant experience. But it was true the Pirate King hadn't been in Chizeta recently enough for the locals to know him, even though he insisted on standing out in a crowd. Of course, Kurogane already knew he was older than the twenty-odd years his face betrayed.

"Well, make sure t'see Mt. Saijaan before ye leave!" A stiff, wooden edge crept into his companion's smile at the mention of the volcano. "No festival, but ye might see the Stargazer's temple if ye find the trail. Even up North, ye woulda heard of our Sora the Hatless, I'll wager. Well, that Old Stargazer taught the boy everything he knows."

"I might do that," Fai answered, taking his wrapped parcel from the shopkeeper and bidding him farewell.

Kurogane had thought it was a waste for the pirate to spend the afternoon distracting him from the ship when he could've gotten on board any day in the past week he'd wanted to. As if he'd sneak in there again before he had a way around whatever the Pirate King and the Sumeragi did to see through his shadow techniques. Was the battle itself a distraction from something bigger happening at the volcano, under the villagers' noses?

The man's smile was almost natural again by the time he walked away and handed Kurogane the package to hold. On a whim, Kurogane didn't let go of the blond's hand after he tucked the clips out of sight. He laced their fingers together as they walked out onto the street. His companion's flinch didn't show in his face, but he couldn't hide the tiny twitch in his palm. "Aren't you a gentleman?" Fai laughed, faking ease. Faking it better after the initial surprise.

"Just keeping you where I can see you. If you're not good, I'll put you on a leash."

"Kuro-sama, you're so mean!" the pirate squealed, cuddling his cheek to Kurogane's shoulder, tension evaporating from his frame as if it was less of a problem holding hands for surveillance than for the act in itself. His grin took on a sparkle that nearly pulled Kurogane into smiling, too. "Tell me... How bad do I have to be? Are there guidelines, or do I have to test all the options?"

"You think I'd tell you?"

"Ooh, let's get our picture done! I think that man's making sticker sets!"

Sure enough, there was an artist by the side of the road, doing a sketch of three girls while a rack of gears trained to his pen made six miniature copies on his table. As the blond dragged him off to stand in line, Kurogane wondered how it could be that he wasn't surprised this was how they were spending their day. A month ago, he would've thought a fried snowball was more likely than him getting a sticker portrait with the Pirate King.

But there he was, getting dragged by his wrist. Princess Tomoyo must've seen this coming. That was probably why she'd giggled like she did when Kurogane had asked for permission to track down the _Dragon of Heaven_ again and set up proper surveillance.

~/~

The glowing room was jumping on Kamui's last nerve, telling its story just slowly enough that everybody had time to guess what each new mural was about and just fast enough that nobody got bored, and all Kamui wanted was for this to be done so they could fight the locals on their trail and _get the hell out of here_. No one else seemed to have his priorities.

"Demons? Like demons from Hell?" the blue ninja asked, still stuck on how Clow Reed had thrown a twist into his overblown bedtime story. "I thought the Barrows-guard was the only demon in the Dioscuri stories. Don't tell me the man in the crown is supposed to be Kokuyo or something! Those guys are just a myth!"

As far as Kamui was concerned, everything in this room was just a myth, but did anyone seem to care? No! Why would they?! They were just standing in a mysterious magical apparatus, trusting everything Clow Reed told them to be the truth, and expecting a fun prize when the show was over! Like idiots.

The green ninja who'd been translating the whole thing took a few more pictures while she puzzled it out. "I don't see anything like the name Kokuyo, and the setting isn't in Hell. This is definitely the story where Clow Reed transported them to the Heavens and they ended up cursed to wander for eternity." The last section of the wheel over their heads filled in, first two figures sitting in a cloud of butterflies and smoke who had to be Clow Reed and the Dimension Witch, then a line of text to the side of their heads. "The Eight Lovers," Green read aloud. "I've never heard that part in the story before."

The next pair of figures showed the crowned demon, or personified star, or whoever he was, with a man curled at his feet, resting a cheek on his leg. The second man was the Snow Fox, Kamui guessed from the staff lying next to them. For some reason he couldn't explain, a chill shot down his back. It didn't get any better when the four figures below them revealed themselves. A girl with trailing robes and a radiant star by her head took the hand of a seated man marked with the Dreamseer's farseeing-eye, and the Barrows-guard - scythe and all - stood with a hand over his right eye, back to back with a young man doubled over in tears.

The right eye. The same eye their Barrows-guard, Lord Sakurazuka, was missing. But it couldn't be real. It couldn't be _him_.

Although... the last part of the picture was a five-pointed star in a circle, underneath the two figures. It looked just like a magic circle Kamui knew too well. And the one he knew belonged to a man with bright green eyes, who loved that jackass Sakurazuka past the telling of it and had probably cried out all his tears a long time ago. Staring at the image, Kamui could almost see Subaru's face, young and distraught, and he had to admit that the chill in _that man's_ eyes would fit this picture of the Barrows-guard's legend.

"Look at those stars, by her head and under his feet..." Yuzuriha moved her finger between the two images. "Are those supposed to be the Heavenly Twins? The sister with the Dreamseer, and... and the brother with the Barrows-guard?! Well, _that's_new."

Kamui didn't say anything. He'd forgotten that the pentagram was the Heavenly Twins' seal. So it couldn't be Subaru - the Heavenly Twins had died, consumed by their spells in the final battle. Subaru was alive. So maybe the Barrows-guard had a habit of grinding pretty men's hearts into dust, and Subaru had just been next in line. Who could think anything better of _that man_, Kamui wondered. He'd never found a reason to.

Green pursed her lips as she studied the text filling in under the images. "Can someone confirm something for me? The oldest stories I've read said the Barrows-guard took a life from the stars, and because of it the Dioscuri were cast out of the Heavens, cursed with eternal life. No one's heard any other reason?"

"I've never seen anything else," Saiki answered. "I'm... guessing that's not what this says?"

The wind ninja took more pictures of the ceiling. "No, it's the same sentiment, the same phrasing as I've seen in recorded lore. 'Taking that which is eternal confers into your heart the burden of eternity'. But in this context-"

"And by 'context'," Blue shot back, "You mean it's the caption for a cartoon about the Divine Warriors getting hot and heavy with demons? Or gods, I guess, since I assume Lady Yuuko caught it from Clow."

"Can we stop talking about immortality like it's a venereal disease?" Kamui groaned.

No one seemed to hear. They all kept arguing about the drawings like they were a 2000-year-old soap opera. As he buried his face in his hands, he heard Yuzuriha's voice behind him to the right. "But what about the other four? The Barrows-guard, the Dreamseer, and the Heavenly Twins were all human! It doesn't work!"

"Unless the Barrows-guard really was a demon," Saiki called back. His voice trembled. "Or... is a demon. If... he's... Well, if he's you know who. The Brother's paired with him here-"

"And what?" the blue ninja broke in. "The Sister got it from her brother and passed it to the Dreamseer?! Eew!"

Kamui cringed, dropping his fists to his sides. Standing on a magic rock, waiting for an angry crowd to attack, listening to people debate about who Clow Reed thought was sleeping with whom in legends he'd never wanted to believe could be true. This simply could not be how his life was going to end.

The next voice was the green ninja and her infernal calm. "I think it's an emotional transference, not physical. If they'd needed a physical connection of any kind, there should've been a fifth picture here, for an identifiable moment between the Brother and the Sister. But if it's emotional attachment, their existing connection could've caused an inst-"

"That's just sketchy," Blue insisted. "Even if it is an emotion thing, it's a missing link. These are all 'eternity-burden-conferring' relationships, right? Why are we saying one went through the Heavenly Twins when there's no connection for them on the board?"

He was about ready to scream by the time he heard Yuzuriha say, "Maybe it's like how you don't put underground rivers on surface maps?" Then he saw a red blur out of the corner of his eyes - the shortest ninja, waving her arms above her head and looking like she was about to pop.

"What is it?" Kamui snapped. Couldn't she just yell like everyone else?

Apparently not. She pointed at the door with her eyes wide and drew a sword out of the gem on her hand. The hilt looked like real flame and the blade reached at least two feet above her head. Not a word crossed her lips.

Blue muttered, "Shit. I hear... four sets of footsteps all the way past the rope wall. Debates later?" She likewise drew a monstrous broadsword out of her blue gem.

The green ninja's sword reached halfway to the ceiling. But no matter. Kamui was perfectly happy with his usable-sized cutlass - happier, if someone came into close range, which they probably would. He drew it, and alongside Yuzuriha and Saiki stepped toward the door.

Unfortunately, the switches they'd tripped came up once their weight was gone, and the glowing lines around the room started to retreat. "Get back!" Yuzuriha and Kamui both called out to Saiki, who'd stopped in place. Playing Clow's game out to it's conclusion was still the best lead they had towards getting what they came for. They'd just have to fight the scowling hordes rounding the corner without moving from their spots - even if only the best fighters from the mob on their tail would make it through that obstacle course. To quote the red-haired ninja who'd suddenly changed from a bubbly airhead to a fire-eyed badass, _no problem_. Kamui could hear their footsteps now, and he'd take a good fight over watching lava pictures (or magma pictures) any day. The back wall was moving now, sections grating and shifting as the molten rock flowed through them, but its picture could damn well wait till he was done hitting things.

The first four Chizetans ran in. Two more weren't far behind, and Kamui could hear a few more footsteps behind that. He didn't count how many. He was too busy blocking a cut to his chest and trying to sweep his attacker to the floor without taking both feet off of his designated square. Before long, he was fighting off three at a time - the perils of being the only target who wasn't next to a wall and in the middle of a crowd. He swung his cutlass down against one's arm, thrusting his scabbard at the second, kicking back at the third...

Only to have a barrage of icicles knock one of his foes away. A fireball brought another to his knees, and the last was trapped in a cyclone, suspended a foot off the ground and struggling to breathe. Kamui eyed the three ninja with unconscious Chizetans at their own feet. "I had it covered!" he yelled.

"You're welcome," Blue answered before the next wave of fighters got to each of them.

Yuzuriha's opponent was down. Kamui could see it over the shoulder of the man now trying to take off his head. He'd never seen her fight on land before, without her pet seal to back her up, but her would-be attacker was in a ball at her feet and didn't look to be getting up soon. The crowd of fighters holding off the locals trickling through the door must've bought her enough time to think, too. She was standing frozen with her eyes on the back wall.

"Guys? I figured out what 'Game Over' means!"

Kamui's opponent looked at her, just for a fraction of a second. It was enough for Kamui to knee him in the solar plexus and take him out. All the other footsteps were a few yards back from the door. He took his own moment to think and looked at the nearly complete scene behind them.

"I think this one's a picture of Abaddon Falls," Yuzuriha called out.

It had a glowing outline of the Heavenly Twins setting loose their orbs, at least, with feathers falling all around them (in a way Kamui wished didn't happen to him so often, since he'd always liked those stories better when he'd thought the feathers were a metaphor). And near them was a waterfall, which should've been somewhere on the Earth but nobody knew where. The part Kamui had his eye on, though, was an outline of the crowned demon, the Snow Fox's lover - hurtling toward the ground and trailed by lines that made him look like a comet.

Hadn't Subaru been warning Fai about a comet?

No. There were lots of comets. And maybe this picture just happened to look like a comet, but wasn't one. They couldn't be heading into a replay of Abaddon Falls. He wasn't ready to fight off the end of the world.

A club whistled through the air, aimed at his back. Kamui chopped through it with one swipe of his cutlass and kicked the man flying into the far wall. Possibly harder than absolutely necessary. He turned his eyes back to the wall, and skipped to the newest panel to fill itself in. This one had the girl with a star by her head and the man with a scythe in his hand.

With the scythe _at her throat_, both figures wrapped in a shower of sakura petals. And a shape below them that Kamui was uncomfortably certain was a pool of blood. "He killed her," he hissed. "The Barrows-guard..."

But wasn't that girl the Sister from the Heavenly Twins? She should've already been dead after she and her brother released their orbs. They both turned to dust, or so the books all said. If she was still there, where was was the Brother?

Something else Subaru had said came back to him now. Something he wasn't likely to ever forget.

"The Barrows-guard... killed his sister."

"Why are we surprised the Barrows-guard is killing people?" Yuzuriha didn't have a chance to see for herself, with another local fighter trying to get close enough to grapple.

"It's nothing!" Kamui snapped. That wasn't his secret to tell.

Sure enough, when the last panel slid into place and lit up, it showed six figures facing down the crowned demon - all of the Dioscuri, minus the Sister. Clow Reed was standing where she might have otherwise been. The Snow Fox was in front, holding up his crystal staff, but next to the Dimension Witch, the Dreamseer, and even the Barrows-guard behind him, Kamui could see the figure of a man standing over a glowing pentagram.

The Brother survived. The Barrows-guard killed the Sister, and the Brother survived. He really was looking at Subaru's life, played out in glowing illustrations. He was watching Sakurazuka break a man who'd been like a brother to _him_. Kamui could feel tears running hot down his cheeks, and the ground rumbled and cracked under his feet. Crushing energy filled his hands. The next person he punched might just implode.

If he got the chance to punch someone. The nearest enemy was backing away from the splintering rock at Kamui's feet, eyes darting around at the _stupid, fucking white feathers_ falling from the ceiling all around him even though there was nothing they could have come from. The rumbles got louder, and soon everyone had lowered their swords.

"Kamui!" Yuzuriha yelled. "Not inside the volcano!"

He took in a deep breath and counted to ten, trying to stop his energy from running wild. His shipmate was right. If he cracked open the volcano, they'd all die, except maybe the fireproof ninja. Instead of cracking every surface in the room to pieces, he settled for grabbing one of the feathers out of the air and crushing it.

Feathers. How had he forgotten? The Twins had always manifested feathers, just like he did, and like Fuuma did. Subaru caused showers of sakura petals when he got serious, same as the Barrows-guard. That didn't fit. But so many things painted on the walls did. Too many things fit too well.

Were the Divine Warriors real? Was Subaru one of them? Was he not?

"What the hell is going on?!" Kamui screamed at the ceiling. Echoes come back from the maze past the door, but no answers.

Through the cautious silence, a beam of light cut the room and stopped, right in front of Kamui, coalescing into a golden sphere. It traced back to the spot where they'd found Clow's magic circle, which now looked like it had spun itself to rights. He'd come here for an orb, hadn't he? Maybe when he brought it back, he'd get some answers. As the last of the liquid light joined the sphere, he raised his hand to take it.

In that same moment, the red ninja flickered into view next to him, her own hand poised to steal what he'd come here to...

Well. Steal.

The next instant was a blinding flash of whiteness, and the sudden conviction that his substance had turned to pudding.

~/~

One streak of red fire, with another pure and gleaming bright, shot over Sorata's head, and over on land the volcano made a rumble that no island man born and bred liked hearin'. But no eruption had ever sent white streaks runnin' over the horizon with trails of flame behind them, and the tides weren't bothered none by whatever'd happened under the Earth.

"What the fuck?" Tarta hissed. Nothin' more complex than every man and woman on both boats was askin' with their eyes. The only body that didn't look to care about it was the giant octopus thrashing inside the Sumeragi's holding spell.

The Sumeragi himself had his eyes narrowed at the sky with his mouth drawn in a line. Sorata'd never seen much that could get so much of a reaction from the man. Although one person their navigator cared enough for to worry over had been at the mountain, to be sure, the man's green eyes didn't spare a glance at the rumbling rocks where Kamui was. They followed along the trail vanishin' over the edge of the sea.

Then shadows appeared around everyone's feet, followed by a small stream of white feathers, flutterin' down to the decks and along the water as far as the eye could see.

Kamui's feathers. Right in the path of that bolt across the sky.

Sorata caught one in his fingers and twirled it around. "Well, that ain't good."


	7. Lucky 7

_**DISCLAIMER:**__ All CLAMP stories were created by CLAMP. Characters have been adapted without authorization or approval, and I am making no profit from their use._

"Dark and Stormy" is the fifth story in my Pirates vs. Ninjas alternate universe, "Fifteen Mokona on a Dead Man's Chest". **Reading the previous stories is not required.** That said, if you would like to read the stories in order to take advantage of the continuity, details are on my profile page.

_**WARNING:**__ brief sexual situation in a public place. This chapter has been modified from the original version to meet content guidelines._

* * *

**[Lucky 7]**

_Mix equal parts peach liqueur, sloe gin, vodka, whiskey, your light rum of choice, amaretto, and triple sec._  
_Throw in a splash each of orange, cranberry, and lime juices._  
_Serve in a Collins glass._

Fai smiled at the mirrored circle in his hand, plenty aware that his ninja would be watching him from the counter where he was ordering their slushies. The rows of decorative grasses dangling from the ceiling kept the table private from ordinary eyes, but that was nothing to a top ranked ninja. And he'd be listening, too. As softly as he could, and trying not to say anything too incriminating, Fai hissed at Kakyou's face in the surface, "Was there some kind of conspiracy to avoid telling me that it _wasn't here_?"

"No one knew," his friend answered. "Clow is still stronger than any of us, except maybe Subaru. What he does in the future, we don't see."

"I know, I know."

Even if Kakyou had decided he had reasons to conceal that this island was nothing but a gateway, Princess Kotori never would have. And now Kamui was vanished to parts unknown while the _Dragon of Heaven_ was locked in a battle, and he couldn't get to the _Dragon of Earth_ without an extremely handsome and inconveniently competent ninja tracking him the whole way. It was enough trouble that his flagship had already been compromised without his stealth ship getting marked, too. So far, Fai hadn't tried to slip away, but he'd kept his eyes open for any means by which he could do it. Kuro-bun had been as good as his word about making escape impossible.

Not that he hadn't enjoyed the experience, but once that light shot out of the volcano and spirited Kamui off to god knew where, he no longer had the luxury of spending all the time he needed to get this little infatuation out of his system.

As if reading his thoughts, Kakyou sighed, "We'll be ready to sail whenever you shake your escort."

"If you knew what kind of ninja your great-granddaughter keeps, you wouldn't make that sound so easy."

"Great-granddaughter six dozen times removed - although I'll grant, it sounds like Tomoyo-chan takes more after Hokuto than is common anymore. And you'll manage."

"I will," Fai admitted. He kept all ruminations about the details to himself. He'd probably have to disable his ninja to make a clean escape, and that wouldn't get any easier if his Kuro-ruu could hear him from here. "I'll manage something."

Kakyou shook his head with the weariness that people could only summon when even sleep was no refuge from reality. "You mean you'll screw him until he can't stand up."

The first words to his tongue, Fai realized, belonged to the red-eyed ninja. But he decided to say them anyway. "If there's a way that's easy, I won't stop just because it's fun." And why should he throw away a perfectly good reason just because his companion had said it first? It was nothing but a nice way to sum up a philosophy he'd always considered worthwhile.

"Fai," Kakyou murmured with a bitter grimace. "You should understand, if you open your heart to that ninja, and Ashura breaks free to destroy the world-"

"I've handled my affairs this long. I think I know what I'm-"

"-neither Subaru nor I would blame you for that. These things happen."

It would be petty, Fai decided, to point out that Subaru had never possessed the ability to blame anyone for anything, and that Kakyou hadn't cared about 'the world' in centuries. "I don't know why you're all so convinced that I'm in love with him," he answered instead. "I've had longer flings before. We'll be fine."

"If you say so," the dreamseer said, with that infuriating fatality that always sounded like he was actually saying, '_I can see the future! Why does anyone ever argue with me?_'

"If that comet were Ashura, I'd know."

"I'm sure you would."

But all they really knew was that someone was coming from on high who had enough power to disguise his or her actions in a dreamseer's visions as effectively as Clow Reed could. That field was less empty than Fai would have liked.

Kuro-kin was leaving the counter now, two drinks in hand. "I'll be in touch," Fai whispered.

Kakyou nodded. "We'll track down Kamui's location. If Satsuki's instruments can't find him, Fuuma should be motivated enough to talk Seishirou into helping."

"I'm sure Kamui would love that." The _Dragon of Heaven_'s First Mate would, of course, rather die than take anything from Seishirou, not that Fai could blame him. Subaru was his friend, too. And the one thing Kamui would hate worse, although they'd been at pains to give him no opportunity to discover it, would be seeing Fuuma ask for it, the prince of Kaizuka being what he was.

Most people never saw more in Fuuma than a remarkable likeness to someone they held dear, and how he treated another person rarely made an impression - but Kamui would know what he was seeing if he ever witnessed Fuuma, who meant more to Kamui than anybody, reflecting back Seishirou's fondest wishes. There might not be a ship left to sail on if that happened. Fai would've preferred to keep Kamui on a different ship as always, but wherever Clow had sent him, it was too far away and getting him back was too important.

With a nod, he spun his finger clockwise around the edge of the mirror, collapsing it down like a fan, and he stuck the silver rod into his waistcoat pocket. Next, Fai leaned his chin on his hand with a bright grin to welcome his date. "What'd you get, lover?"

"I think it's starfruit. And here's the lychee you wanted."

Fai sipped the cool, white (non-tongue-staining!) slush out of the cup his ninja handed him. Delicious, and entirely worth the trip someone had to take into the mountains to get the ice.

"And would you believe it's snowing outside?" Kuro-pan ducked his head to look out a window. "I guess it stopped. Damnedest thing."

Keeping his face set in a blank smile, Fai forced himself to do nothing but take a nice, easy sip of his drink. Certainly, he wouldn't indulge in a false move like reaching for the communicator he'd been using long enough for his energy to bleed into the weather. "You know, technically, it _is_ winter here," he said. "Why shouldn't it snow?"

"It's hot enough to fry an egg."

"Oh? Does that mean you won't come to the hot springs with me after this?" Fai asked with a pout. He kicked his toe against the ninja's leg and pulled him onto the bench. His knee hooking over his companion's knee as he dragged the man closer by his shirt was a little more blatant than he'd planned to be, but fortune never favored someone who retreated from that kind of mistake. And his lover made it easy to forget it was a mistake at all, dropping his hand down to inappropriate places. "I know this place. Private baths. Very classy."

"I'll bet."

Under cover of a kiss turning tectonic, Fai flipped open one of the trick buttons he'd found on the jacket he'd appropriated from the ninja and sprinkled the powder he'd stored inside onto the yellow starfruit slushie. He felt a jolt in his stomach when the man in his arms didn't even flinch. He should've blocked the attempt to lace his drink. The elite ninja really was putting all his focus into that kiss, and he'd notice if Fai didn't start doing the same. Good thing it was easy enough to lose himself in the enjoyment of a back-corner bench where the table covered how his lover slid both his hands under Fai's legs to draw him closer, letting them play without passersby offering tips (of any sort). What was done was done. As much as he hated the thought of leaving this man unconscious on a hotel bed before they'd both had their fill, _actually_ wearing him out would be a challenge. Having seen Kuro-kicchi fight, Fai couldn't be sure he wouldn't be the one to run out of stamina first.

At least he could be sure his companion would take the bait. The fingers squeezing his thigh now wouldn't say no to anything. Fai laughed, plucking his ninja's hand up in mock dismay. "They've got private rooms, too, Kuro-sama, if _that's_ still what you're after. You don't think I'm the sort of man who'd settle for a quickie in the back of the slushie shop, do you?"

"Settle, no. Take as an appetizer, absolutely."

Fai let the man shove him down on the bench, resting with the wood against his shoulder blades. Maybe his opponent had noticed how Fai had spiked his drink after all, he thought, and their hour or two of playing nice was over. But those red eyes studied every inch of him - slowly, like he was a general drawing up a battle plan. His body whispered that the ninja was none the wiser, and it wasn't too late to spill the tainted drink, to let their day play out as intended. Maybe he wouldn't ruin his chances to repeat this run-in some other day.

But too much about today had already strayed from the plan for him to take this easy.

While he considered his options, Kuro-mi picked up his cup and held it an inch from his lips. And waited. Fai pushed his fingers back into his hair, holding his head where he could see the look on the ninja's face and his hands where they couldn't lash out on their own to knock the slushie away. He watched his Kuro-nin drink a few mouthfuls. Not the whole cup, but enough already to get a solid dose. Then he closed his eyes and rode into the grip on his leg, trying to forget everything except how this felt. Anything else would put his lover on guard, and who knew if he'd get another chance?

~/~

Breakfast dishes forgotten, Lantis checked his sword again and settled his cape over his shoulders. "Still nothing?"

"Hikaru's unit seems to be completely offline," Eagle answered. He pressed an array of buttons on his mechanized wristband. The clink of metal when he walked betrayed the arsenal of knives and explosive gadgetry he had strapped to his back, legs, and arms, and experience promised that was less than half of the weapons he'd concealed on his person. "Has Lady Yuuko given permission for us to leave?"

Lantis doubted that Eagle could care if she hadn't. But there was no need for him to answer. A cascade of butterflies appeared out of nowhere, circling a silvered disk that hung in the air with their Mistress's face. "Good," Yuuko said. "I see you're all ready to go."

With a smile not quite bright enough to hide his worry, Eagle stepped up to face her. "At top speed, the _FTO_ should be able to get us to Chizeta and back in around a day and a half, maybe less. You'll barely miss us."

"Speed will be of the essence in resolving our little problem, but you should know..." The Witch looked like a statue while Lantis counted seconds in his head. "Hikaru might not be in Chizeta anymore."

"Where is she?" Lantis asked. Pointing Eagle's boat in the right direction was his first priority.

"We can't tell yet," wasn't the answer he wanted to hear, but he bore it with stiff-jawed patience. Eagle's smile had disappeared completely. "Don't worry. The site is defended. As long as you can get to her within a few days, she'll be fine."

A man learned not to ask questions like, 'How do you know she's defended if you don't know where she is?' when working for Yuuko. Any answers she gave for free wouldn't be satisfactory, but she also never said anything unless she had reason to be sure.

"Rendezvous with her team in Chizeta. You'll find them near Mt. Saijaan. If she's not with them, then by the time you arrive she should have activated the item she's gone to discover. My assistant has a device you can use to track its signal. He'll know what you need when you stop by his apartment. The rest is up to you."

"And what's the price?" Lantis asked. There'd be one if they had to borrow equipment for a personal job. He wasn't happy with shelling out sight unseen, but anything Lady Yuuko thought they couldn't handle on their own power, the cost to get her help would be worth it. The sooner they knew, the sooner they could retrieve Hikaru.

The Witch smiled and took a draw on her pipe. "The _FTO_ can make maps with its scanners, correct? Eagle, your price is to give me a map of wherever Hikaru has found herself. Lantis, I'll have you bring me a rock from the nearest shore that's been smoothed in the tide. I think that should make us even." They nodded, and were halfway to the door by the time the mirrored circle and its attendant butterflies vanished.

Skirting the bustle of Hundhammeren's mid-morning streets, they hurried as fast as they could go. He could flickerstep to Watanuki's apartment and be back at the docks by the time Eagle was finished bringing the _FTO_ online. Eagle was restrained by the speed of ordinary running. The blond could manage speed most men would envy, and few sailors were more capable, but despite their agreement with Lady Yuuko to let him serve in the capacity of a ninja, he didn't have a ninja's training and found it amusing to stay that way. "How do the tides look?" Lantis murmured. "If you need to prep the boat, we should split up. It'll be faster."

With a laugh, Eagle asked, "And who'll make sure Lady Yuuko's equipment has the interfaces I need? Her help won't do us any good for navigation if I can't use it with the _FTO_'s systems." Then the smile dropped off his face, eyes blazing ahead. "As for the tides... Low tide just hit, so the currents'll be strong when we leave. There's no worse time to launch, but I promise - I can handle it. At least the _FTO_ is small. If she'd been a full-size vessel, we'd have been beached for six hours."

Not an option Lantis wanted to consider. Thanking fate, or inevitability, or whatever force would let them leave immediately, he kept pace at his lover's side. Before long, they stood outside a nondescript third-floor apartment, and Lantis rang the bell as fast as his feet could hit the daisy-embroidered welcome mat.

"_What_ do you think you're doing?!" Watanuki's voice screamed inside - not, Lantis presumed, at them. "Did anyone ask you to answer that?! No, they most certainly did _not_! I am perfectly capable of answering the front door in my own home, thank you very much!"

The door cracked open, and a tall, dark-haired man who looked like the captain of the _Queen Cassandra_ stood in the hall. "You've got waffles on," he called back over his shoulder. "You wouldn't want 'em to burn." When he turned back around, his eyes narrowed to hard lines, staring at Eagle's sharpened smile. "You're..."

The lanky frame of Yuuko's personal assistant poked out of a doorway at the far end of the hall, flushed red and flailing his arms as always. "God damn you, Dou-" As soon as he met eyes with Lantis, his breath shriveled into a wheeze. He returned Eagle's wave, but his hand looked like the last leaf clinging to a branch in the fall. "Oh god. This isn't what it looks like!"

With the pirate's shirt unlaced and his coat on the coat rack next to his hat, plus a pair of boots abandoned by the doorway with the scent of batter on a griddle wafting from the kitchen, Lantis assumed it was exactly what it looked like: a cozy breakfast for two people not looking for interruptions. Watanuki would've been the last ninja Lantis expected to be making waffles with pirates, but then again, he was no one to point fingers.

"Good morning, Watanuki-san," Eagle said, and turned to the pirate who'd made himself at home. "And it's Doumeki-kun, isn't it? I think we've met."

"How have you _met_?!" Watanuki screamed. Pointing a finger out the door, he scowled and his eyebrows twitched. "These are _my_ coworkers, and I have had it up to _here_..." He gestured about a foot above his head. "... with you meeting them! And now you're doing it without my supervison?!"

Lantis's gut tightened, waiting for the word 'Autozam' to come out of Doumeki's mouth. If Eagle's secret was forfeit to getting Hikaru back safely, none of them would mind giving it up. But then, with barely a wrinkle in his brow, Doumeki glanced from Eagle to the frothing Watanuki and said, "I get around. Do you have any firefruit for the waffles?"

For now, it looked like their secret was safe.

"Do you have any idea how far out of season firefruit is?!" Watanuki shoved his face within an inch of Doumeki's. "But I _may_ have some preserves left in the pantry, and if you learn to say please and thank you, I might just be gracious enough to allow you to use them. Excuse me while I _go check_."

Once he stomped off, Doumeki turned back to the open door. "So it is you. What are you doing here?"

Eagle's smile never changed. "The same thing you are, I imagine."

"Yes! He's here to see _me_, so you can just sit your ass back down at the table and stay out of it!" Watanuki stormed back and pushed a jar filled with red jam into Doumeki's hands, then faltered as he looked back and forth between Lantis and his houseguest. "I mean... Ah!" He pointed at the dark-haired pirate. "_He's_ not here to see me. I... I don't know why he's here! He keeps showing up places where he's not invited!"

The pained line on Doumeki's mouth as he settled against the wall and crossed his arms looked like he'd heard that a few more times than he had patience for. More to Lantis's immediate concern, his presence made it hard to ask for the tool Yuuko had sent them to retrieve. Eagle aside, he couldn't discuss Ninja Union matters in front of anyone who wasn't a qualified ninja, let alone in front of a pirate.

He took a deep breath and stared down his co-worker, who gulped despite his technically equal rank in the organization. "Management said you knew what we needed. It's urgent."

"Oh. I... I... What you needed..." He patted down his pockets and glanced around the entryway in a frenzy. After a second, a wind blew from behind them and made a paper on a table in the hallway fly up against the wall.

The paper said, "This thing!" in bright red letters with an arrow. "Love, Yuuko."

Watanuki grabbed a long, thin box it was pointing to and crushed the paper to a ball in his hand, presumably before Doumeki could see it. He rushed back to the door in a blur, shoving the box at them. "Here."

Once Eagle inspected the device inside - something thin and silver, and about as long as Lantis's hand - he snapped the box closed again and stowed it in a pouch on his leg. "Well, then. We'll be on our way." He sniffed the air. "...Do I smell burning waffles?" As Watanuki ran screaming back to the kitchen, the blond chuckled. "Good sailing, Doumeki-kun."

"You didn't answer my question."

"It's a longer story than I can tell at the moment. You'll have to excuse us."

Although Watanuki's pirate didn't look like he wanted to, he nodded and closed the door. Lantis ran off with Eagle by his side, down to the docks where they had the _FTO_ uncovered and ready to sail in record time. He started the motor churning while Eagle set his instruments for a course to Chizeta. When they were sure no one was watching, Eagle pulled a lever, the sides raised up overhead into a bubble, and they sank down under the water.

"_FTO_, go," Eagle purred, shifting the gears up to top speed. He didn't have to say it, Lantis knew, and he definitely didn't have to say it in his bedroom voice, but reminding Eagle of that never got anywhere. He focused on the dim-lit water rushing by the windows and didn't let himself imagine what kind problem could've taken Hikaru, one of the top ten fighters in the Ninja Union, out of contact.

~/~

Hikaru's eyes fluttered open, but it didn't help much. Everything was dark. And cold.

Really cold.

Eagle's signaly widget was still in her hand, blasted beyond repair.

"Ugh..." a voice groaned, then his jaw started to chatter.

Her pirate friend, Kamui-san. Now she remembered. She hadn't had time to think when the orb had formed in Clow's picture room. She'd rushed him, and they'd both been taken... wherever they were. Hikaru could hear the sounds of the sea around them, and feel the solid rock where she lay. No people anywhere to be heard, although it sounded like there were seals somewhere within a couple hundred yards.

First things first. They couldn't freeze to death. She formed a fireball in her hand and, not seeing anything nearby to burn that was more substantial than moss, she blasted a large rock until it started to glow. Next, she summoned two heavy cloaks out of her storage gem. One went over her own shivering shoulders, and the other went over Kamui as he struggled to his feet.

"Thanks," he said, stepping closer to the heated boulder. Less animated in the chill than he'd been inside the volcano, he shook his head and muttered, "I can't believe I'm thanking a ninja."

Hikaru shrugged.

"And why the hell won't you say anything?!"

She made a zipping motion over her lips and shrugged again, hoping he got the point.

"Because Yuzuriha _jinxed you_?!"

She nodded.

"But that's stupid! What, are you _five_?! I really have to say your name before you'll start talking?!"

She shrugged one more time. It was stupid. That was true. But she'd figured she'd play along, since it might be the only chance she had for Kamui-san to start being friendly.

Right on cue, the pirate sighed. "It's Hikaru, right?"

"Bingo!" She turned her eyes up to the ink-black sky twinkling with stars, not even lit by the moon. "So where do you think we are?"

"Nowhere I've ever been." He shivered, hugging his arms tight to his chest. "And definitely nowhere near Chizeta. Do you have any clue how long we've been out?"

Summoning her watch, checked the dial, then checked the date, since she couldn't believe the time it said was right. But it was. "It looks like we've been out fifteen minutes."

They both glanced around the pitch dark landscape, a far cry from the tropical paradise they'd left in the early afternoon. "No way," Kamui-san muttered, and slipped a compass out of his pocket. "East is..." He glanced up at the mountain towering to their right. "Not helpful. West..." Looking out over the thrashing sea, he growled at the horizon where another mountain on another island across the narrow strait blocked most of their view. "Okay, West-_ish_. Pegasus and Pisces are setting? It's got to be six in the morning here. This is practically the other fucking side of the planet! And where the hell is the sun? There ought to be _some_ light."

"It's impressive how you know all that." She could recognize the constellations, but she couldn't use them to guess local time.

He slipped a metal contraption that looked like a slice of pie out of his jacket. "I'm an officer on a boat. This is midshipman stuff." She leaned up to study how he adjusted the knobs and mirrors on his gadget while he stared through the attached scope, murmuring, "Markab, Markab, Markab... Ah hah!"

"It's still impressive," she told him. "I don't even know what you're doing."

"This is a sextant. I'm measuring how high up Markab is from the horizon so I can get our fucking latitude."

"Ooh. That sounds like something Fuu-chan knows how to do."

"Yeah, well if Subaru were here, he'd just _look_, and then he'd _know_. Subaru can..." Kamui-san glanced away from his sextant to scowl at her. "Why am I even telling you this?"

"Beats me."

He moved another few knobs on his gadget and made a sound that was oddly similar to spinning windmill crashing into gravel. "Well, I figured out why there's no light," Kamui-san spat. "We're just below the 57th parallel. Two-thirds of the way to the fucking South Pole!"

Hikaru was still impressed.

Kamui just reared back his head and screamed, "I hate my life!" at the night sky, so she picked up the black tricorn on the ground with it's huge purple feather and held it out to him.

"At least you still have your hat?"


	8. Cradle of Life

_**DISCLAIMER:**__ All CLAMP stories were created by CLAMP. Characters have been adapted without authorization or approval, and I am making no profit from their use._

"Dark and Stormy" is the fifth story in my Pirates vs. Ninjas alternate universe, "Fifteen Mokona on a Dead Man's Chest". **Reading the previous stories is not required.** That said, if you would like to read the stories in order to take advantage of the continuity, details are on my profile page.

_**WARNING:**__ sexual situation. This chapter has been modified from the original version to meet content guidelines._

* * *

**[Cradle of Life]**

_Combine 1 oz. light rum, 1 oz. spiced rum, 3/4 of an ounce of orange juice, and half an ounce of orgeat syrup._  
_Add most of a tablespoon each of lemon and lime juices, and two dashes of Angostura bitters._  
_Shake vigorously. Strain into a Collins glass over crushed ice._  
_Invert a lime shell over top, and fill with 1/2 oz. chartreuse._  
_Set on fire._

Kamui hated everything. He hated this frozen little island, he hated the legends that got him sent here, and he hated that he was wearing a coat he'd borrowed from a ninja. More than that, he hated that he knew this was nothing compared to how unimaginably bad life could be. He could've been here alone, without a ninja who could hand him a coat and fire-blast rocks until they were hot enough for them to stop shivering. He could've been staring out at those black waves, noticing the ghostly threads of green and mauve light starting to stretch above their neighbor island while the air crackled, and he could've had no one's thoughts but his own to distract him.

And did he smell... chocolate?

"Are you hungry?" Hikaru called out. She was standing over a big, heated boulder, holding a skewer with two marshmallows on the end. A folding table had appeared at her side with more marshmallows, a pile of graham crackers and the chocolate he'd smelled. The ninja girl drew a second skewer out of the storage gem on her hand, her long braid bobbing behind her head. "There's plenty to go around."

"We're stuck in the middle of nowhere, and you brought _smores_?"

"I can make toast for breakfast, and I've got beans and stuff, too, but it still feels like the middle of the afternoon, so I figured snacks were better."

"Do you maybe have a way to _call for help_ in there?" Although he did take the skewer and start roasting some marshmallows. He had no intention of watching a ninja stand around making smores while he suffered. He could suffer while eating chocolate, which was slightly less disagreeable than other kinds of suffering.

Instead of reaching for her gem again, she held up a scorched bit of metal she had clipped to her belt. "It broke on the trip. But we'll be fine! We're still on the Earth, right? All the constellations are the same," she said, pointing at the stars. "So we haven't gone anywhere out of reach. No problem!"

"Has there ever been anything that you _do_ consider a problem?"

"Political obligations standing in the way of true love?" She bit her lip, staring hard at the browning shell on her marshmallow. "Although those two eloped to Muscovia, so I guess it's not a problem anymore."

"... I guess that's good." Kamui got his marshmallows as close to the rock as possible, hoping he could get them hot enough to spontaneously combust and maybe char on the outside. "But it's still a big planet, and we've got no ship - and nothing here we can use to build a ship, either. I don't know about you, but I left all my friends five thousand miles away. I don't think smoke signals are going to point them here." Maybe Subaru or Arashi could do a divination, though, or maybe the flock of seals around this island could talk to Yuzuriha's seal, Puppy, and he could pass the message on to her. Would it be too stupid to go up to a flock of seals and hope they understood him when he said, "Go to Chizeta and tell somebody where to find me?"

Did he care?

Oh, what he wouldn't give to be able to fly right now.

The ninja grinned at him brightly enough to make him feel like kicking boulders into the ocean until he made a wave that'd rip all the way to where his crew and ship were. "Don't worry!" she said. "If I can't contact Lantis and Eagle, that means they'll _definitely_ find us. Somebody'll know how. I'm sure they won't mind giving you a ride."

She was so fucking _happy_.

He hated happy people. Except Sorata. And Yuzuriha. And Keiichi, that new deckhand on the _Dragon of Heaven_. They were happy people, too, but somehow okay. Ninjas were not okay, and could never be okay, and at least this girl wasn't as bad as Kurogane, but Kamui couldn't help noticing that the hot rock was leaving his marshmallows golden brown and not charred in the least.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the girl set up for another fire blast to re-warm their boulder and dipped his skewer right along the edge. Just enough for them to catch, not enough to turn to charcoal. When he blew it out, they were black and crispy. Everything you could ask of marshmallows, Kamui thought, reaching for the graham crackers.

"You should've told me you like them burnt! I'd have gotten that for you."

"Can we just worry about leaving this island?"

"You're right! We've only got until someone shows up to find us!"

Kamui stared at the redhead, whose eyes seemed to grow ever wider and more clueless as she stood staring right back at him and munching on her marshmallow-chocolate sandwich. There should have been a limit to that, but he couldn't see one. Nothing was getting better about this situation. Finally, he gave in and sighed, "We've got til then to do _what_?" Not that he expected anyone to come for them at all, so it was a moot point.

"To find the orb thingy!" she answered. "That's what we came for, right?"

That fucking orb. He hated that, too. Hate, hate, hate. "You think it's _here_?" he asked, rolling his eyes at the barren, looming rocks.

"Something's here." She stuck two more marshmallows on the end of her skewer and looked out at the growing aurora to the west. Kamui wasn't sure if she knew that any natural aurora should've been to the south, but he wasn't here to make conversation either. And maybe she knew. Her eyes had switched again from airheaded to serious in no more than a blink. "And if this is where that room sent us, this is probably where we're supposed to be."

"You trust this situation far more than is healthy."

"What else have we got to work with?"

As much as he hated to admit it, she had a point. Clow had built the room that dropped them in this hellhole, probably, or someone who was just as good as Clow. Someone who knew what they were doing, just as much as Clow did when he built those stupid orbs for the Dioscuri in those legends. Maybe after they'd searched the island to make sure it was as empty as it looked, he could go back to believing nothing about them was real, since everything that'd happened today had...

The legends. That might be true.

"Wait a second," Kamui muttered. The ninja blinked, turning her new marshmallows over the rock. "In the legends... those orbs were communicators, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Fuck everything. Let's look for it. I'll forgive those stories for being real if we can get a call off this goddamned rock."

"Woohoo!" The ninja jumped three feet in the air, then stepped toward him with her hand raised next to her bright-eyed grin. When he didn't answer, she grabbed his right hand and pulled it up to slap hers in a high-five.

Kamui blinked. "This... doesn't make us friends."

"Sure it does!" Hikaru sang out, holding up the bag of marshmallows.

He took three. Because pirates took things. It was entirely normal.

~/~

The sea churned around the _Dragon of Heaven_ and the _Bravada_, ears and hands going numb from the salt spray kicked up by the monster octopus they were wrestlin' down - and been tryin' to do for what had to be hours now, though hours passed like minutes and seconds could feel like days when a fight like this wouldn't quit - all while fendin' off the whips and slashes Chizeta's two princesses had to spare. But it had to be hours. The rope coiled over his shoulder was soaked heavy, his bones cryin' from carryin' it too long. His breath had turned hard, and his limbs softer than he'd like to admit, leaving the burn of the sea air and the shake of his muscles as all he could feel. Blind faith, not reason, told him he was standing on the octopus at all, and not on the waves themselves.

Karen, trying to burn the tentacles off of their grip, had made some headway, but not enough. The Sumeragi stood balanced on the deck, ignoring the rushing and the chaos around him as he kept the monster from coming any further in. Aoki'd mustered the crew to pull the _Dragon of Heaven_ back free wherever they could get an inch, and his lovely honey had thrown her all into takin' out this beast - which was easier said than done. If they hadn't all been dosed in sea water before this'd begun, he'd have tried his lightning, but as it was, a strike good enough to fell the eight-armed horror'd take down every pirate on these waters along with it. Sorata's consolation was, the princesses and their crew were farin' about the same.

Sorata jumped from one flying tentacle towards the beast's head, only to catch another tentacle that got in his way. Too many arms, that thing had, and the creature's next thrash brought Sorata down almost on top of Princess Tarta. The end of the arm where she stood was wrapped around one of the _Bravada_'s masts, and for the moment she'd found a place to stand firm.

"None of this would've happened if you assholes hadn't snuck somebody into the volcano!" she screamed. Keepin' his balance on the slippery, thrashin' limb of a sea horror weren't any easier for a lady cuttin' a scimitar at his head.

"Pardon me askin', but how's the volcano figure in this mess we're in now?!"

"Octopuses... can _sense things_!" She clenched her fists and screamed. No doubt she was findin' logic troublesome at the moment. "It probably attacked because it knew your goons were in there!"

Swinging down into the water with the next strike of the octopus's arm, Sorata made a break for the body of the thing. Getting at the head was the only chance they had. But the beast started sucking in a whirlpool of water that woulda put him nowhere good, and he clambered up onto another limb, cutlass in his teeth. Once he'd got a good grip of his seat between his legs, he slid it back into his sheath. Wouldn't want it lost before he got to his goal. Tarta inched forward on her limb as well, stance wide and low.

"You wanna think about not takin' off my head, Tarta-chan? Maybe we all got enough trouble with savin' our skins?"

"I ain't takin' help from no ninja-lovin' Kaizuka turncoat or his frip-frap crew!"

"Tarta, dear!" Tatra called out. She was sittin' pretty on the far end of another leg, keepin' her grip on a sucker pad and makin' like the curve of the monster's limb was as steady as a chair in a tea room. "You might want to think about taking his help. I think we're needed back at camp!" The older princess pointed towards the shore, where they all saw a bright surge of fire leaping up from the trees at the base of the volcano. Nothing had erupted from the top, but something sure as hell weren't right.

Tarta stared at the blaze, bobbing on her kraken tightrope as Sorata finally inched close enough to the octopus's body that each move was closer to a sway than a flail. Close enough to whip a length of weighted rope around the base of the next arm over. One down, one to go.

"Fine!" the younger princess called out.

Sorata whipped out his second rope to his left. The beast crashed it down, though, and he missed. But he dragged it back in for another go. "What was that, now?"

She fumed, nostrils flaring as she slid another few inches forward. "I said I'll give!" Tarta barked. "Temporary ceasefire, until we can get to shore and find out what the hell's goin' on!"

"Not on your life, Princess!" Sorata laughed as he swirled the second rope around his head for another cast.

"_Excuse me?!_"

"You don't wanna fuck around with me..." He hurled the second rope again. This time it anchored itself good and proper. "... and no _temporary ceasefires_!" Sorata tugged the ropes taut to check his balance and threw Tarta a wild grin. "You agree to sit down for negotiations once we get more immediate matters settled, here and on shore, or there's no deal."

The lady nearly lost her balance, but her anger seemed to keep her upright. "You wouldn't! You... your crew, your ship..." She swung her scimitar in a circle through the air, pointing at the lot. "You wouldn't risk them to make me negotiate!"

Working his feet up to the top of the octopus's leg and holding the ropes steady to keep his rear from falling off, he laughed in spite of it all. Had he been feelin' cold and tired a minute ago? He took it all back. These were the times as made a man feel alive. "My crew and my ship are the best on the waves! I'm thinkin' they'll be just fine! What's a little undersea nightmare gonna do to the _Dragon of Heaven_?"

"You're bluffing! You wouldn't!"

"You've met me, darlin'," Sorata answered, and pulled himself up to standin', like he had the octopus thrashing on reins. As he stepped slowly up toward the eyes of the beast, he turned to Tarta and smiled. "What _won't_ I do?"

Goin' steady up the limb where he'd cast on that last line, he caught Arashi looking at him, like maybe she was worryin' he wouldn't pull this off. He winked at her, sorry he had no time to marvel at her blush and scowl. They were as fine as ever while she lashed a knot into his rope to stop it from slippin'. Alas, her eyes turned all too soon to grappling another of the legs and bindin' it fast into the knot to make herself a steadier bridge.

Off to his right, Tarta called out, "All right! You win!" She'd crouched down to a knee to fasten a knot in the other rope. "Once this shitstorm quiets down, we all sit and see if there's something to discuss. But I don't promise a treaty!"

"I think that's a start," he shouted.

The princess wasn't listening. She was runnin' up the leg Sorata was holdin' still, screamin' like a blood-ghost as her sword glittered in the sun.

~/~

Kurogane expected that the webs of carving all over the thick, teak doors on their hotel room were just as decorative as the rest of this place. He didn't get a chance to inspect them while he shoved the Pirate King's back up against the grain and tripped the lock on the door in between kisses. The feathered hat was off, the fist that clutched it held up where it hid their faces from the hallway. The scoundrel it belonged to must've decided he didn't want to share his bite technique with the porter in the hallway.

Lightly scraping teeth pulled a growl from Kurogane's throat.

No reason to bother with the key. Jimmying the latch was faster.

They tumbled into the room, door still hanging wide open. Kurogane was busy letting the blond rip his shirt in two right down the front. He traced his fingers through flaxen hair that gleamed white-gold in the sunlight dancing through the window. Desperate need painted his lover's face, his blue eyes glistening like living flame. His tongue peeked out through the kiss-bruised redness of his lips.

The rhythm of his breath was hypnotic.

It would've been perfect if he could manage not to see how the pirate's mood had changed after the volcano blew. Kurogane didn't mind that half the point of this little day out was to keep him out of the way of whatever his lover's crew had to do. They were both mixing business and pleasure. But the look in his face was different now. The guilt the man hid in the curl of his lip and the tilt of his head was gonna have to go, before they ended up in the same place as they did two weeks ago, with the blond curled in Kurogane's arms, frozen scared by his own head and refusing to say why.

He'd never say by choice. That much was clear.

Button by button, Fai opened his waistcoat, then his shirt, revealing his creamy skin to the light as he stood up and closed the door. "Go ahead. No one's stopping you. I"ll be everything you want me to be, Kuro-sama."

Kurogane nodded his chin over his shoulder. "Bed."

The blond sauntered over to the foot of the bed and slid himself up onto the sheets. The way he stretched onto his side could've been the fog rolling over the ground, and Kurogane's mind nearly clouded over with the urge to give that human force of nature whatever he asked for. But there were a few house rules before playtime could start.

"Up," he ordered.

Fai rose to his knees, close enough for Kurogane to grab him and pull him closer still. He pressed the man's knee against his hip, letting long, fine legs trail up his back, relaxing his neck against the warm side and heavy-breathing abdomen his lover offered up like a throne. Soft hands reached down to massage his shoulders and trace the lines of his neck.

From there, he would've had an opening to throttle the air from Kurogane's lungs, if the pirate had been serious about wanting him gone.

Turning to kiss the skin by his shoulder, Kurogane moved his grip back from Fai's knee toward his foot. "I turned your face away because you wouldn't look me in the eye," he said. As the body behind him tightened, so did his hand. "And now you're in such a rush to get what you want me for. Both for the same reason, I think."

His lover yielded when he pushed, falling back without a sound, but confessing everything with the stripped dread in his eyes. Kurogane pushed the man's wrists down into the mattress. He seemed ready to take whatever might happen to him, but the one thing he wanted least was to hear what Kurogane was about to say.

"It's because of the tranq you slipped me, isn't it? The one you think is gonna shut me down so you can run out to your ship without me following you. You wanted to finish with me before I went under." And it would've worked if he hadn't made the right guess from the flavor. Those hadn't been your everyday sleeping pills. But Kurogane didn't mention that. He leaned down close to Fai's ear and whispered, "You're lucky I had the counteragent on me. You were gonna regret that."

And he'd managed to prove in one shot that Kurogane's instincts hadn't been wrong.

It could've been poison, or a knife. It hadn't been.

"So what happens now?"

Blue eyes bit back at him, defiant and ready to fight. That was a damn sight better than watching him feel guilty just because he had to stay to do his own job where he happened to be having a good time instead of leaving to pull someone else's ass out of a fire. If it wasn't important to keep the ninja spy away from the King's pirate business, he shouldn't have stayed on the beach in the first place.

He let go Fai's hands, tracing a finger down the man's cheek. "Now you choose. Are you gonna run off because you can't trust your crew to handle a little trouble, knowing I'll follow you the whole way? You can walk out. I won't stop you. But I never half-ass it when I do what I've decided to do, and there's nothing I hate more than somebody who does."

"I don't suppose there is. So I guess I can't let you out of my sight, now can I?"

"Now that's settled," he growled, "we get a few things clear."

"Such as?" The blond grabbed his wrist and pulled himself up, chest to chest, and just as trembling to feel Kurogane's arm slip gently behind his back as he'd been in their afternoon on the town.

Kurogane leaned close to his ear to whisper.

"I know what you are."


	9. Daiquiri

_**DISCLAIMER:**__ All CLAMP stories were created by CLAMP. Characters have been adapted without authorization or approval, and I am making no profit from their use._

"Dark and Stormy" is the fifth story in my Pirates vs. Ninjas alternate universe, "Fifteen Mokona on a Dead Man's Chest". **Reading the previous stories is not required.** That said, if you would like to read the stories in order to take advantage of the continuity, details are on my profile page.

_**WARNING:**__ involves sexual situations with some dominance themes including impact play, as well as emotional issues. This chapter includes material that may not meet Best Practices standards for "Safe and Sane" behavior, although everything is consensual._

* * *

**[Daiquiri]**

_Stir 1/2 teaspoon sugar into 1/2 oz. lime juice._  
_Add 2 oz. fine white or pale rum. Shake with cracked ice._  
_Strain into a cocktail glass._  
_Vary with fruit and blending as you will, or just let the rum and lime get a room. You saw how they were looking at each other._

The scent of the pirate's skin in full flush was bewitching, the smoothness intoxicating. Kurogane's words hung in the air like a challenge. He hoped it'd draw Fai out, but while he waited, a craving seeped into his bones that wasn't the rush of sex, nor the glow of falling in love. It was like an ache in his dusty corners, pressing forgotten heartstrings. His lover dug into his back, and Kurogane's body screamed for the chance to end the whiplash the blond seemed to cause just by breathing.

But he wouldn't let the man in his arms see him break. And sometimes, wanting release so badly you felt clawed from the inside out made the rewards sweeter.

Fai's hands drew back. The brush of skin seemed to kiss deeper than touch, like wind on the tundra cutting to his core. His opponent had stolen back his balance, Kurogane could tell.

The pirate let out his silver bell laugh. "You 'know what I am', you say?" Stepping to the floor, Fai applauded. "Nicely done, Kuro-tan! Aren't you special."

Strutting toward a table in the corner, the blond reached into his hair and teased out a hidden garrote wire. A brace of throwing knives came out of each coat sleeve next. Trained as he was to summon his weapons when he needed them, Kurogane hadn't thought about how many blades would fit in that coat. Many, it seemed, confirming what he'd felt during their tousle on the beach. Many and more. His lover slipped them out one by one and laid them on the table, like a dancing girl dropping veils. Or like a predator playing vulnerable to draw in prey. Either way, Kurogane couldn't ignore the way he moved, or how he seemed to steal the light for his own shine. Blue eyes turned into mischievous diamonds as he pouted.

"So tell me, Kuro-sama: what am I?" he asked, teasing the caps off of cuff buttons where he'd be keeping more tranquilizers - or poison.

"If you want to disarm, take off my jacket. I like how your back looks naked."

And he wouldn't be any less dangerous.

"Oh, but I don't want to take off your jacket. It feels nice on my skin." He dropped the last button on the table and drew the collar up to his cheeks. "It's comfy. And a boyfriend jacket never goes out of style."

"You think I'm your boyfriend?"

"Just for today. You did buy me lunch." He slid long needles out of the stiff braid trim down the placket. "Are you trying to change the subject? Because I'll be very disappointed if you were only playing a game when you said you'd figured me out."

Kurogane stepped forward as the pirate pulled leather gloves from a side pocket. They knocked the table, betraying steel braces inside.

"I'm not the one playing games, Your Majesty."

"Aren't you, now. So you want me to play with myself?"

"Not this time."

He unlatched the bay doors overlooking the beach, letting the breeze bring a musician's ballad across the balcony along with the fresh air. His Pirate King stripped himself of the spring baton in his front pocket, collapsed down to the size of his palm, then reached for hidden pockets in the lining. Tiny cartridges that looked explosive came out.

The gossamer curtains blew between Kurogane and the pirate's face, showing the man in flashes and starts through a field of white. Kurogane pushed them aside. He wanted a better view, from up close. In three strides, he had Fai pinned against the table - the pirate's cunning hands outlining his chest, inviting lips hovering half a breath away. But he didn't steal another kiss. He drank in the fight inside those eyes that weren't lying as well as they were trying to. They lost their hard luster up close, shining with a liquid entreaty for Kurogane to let him slip away like wind, with his secrets intact.

Wasn't gonna happen.

Reaching behind Fai's back for the bone-handled knife he'd felt before, Kurogane stole the blade, then the tight waistband strapping it on. "If you think you can run your little show behind everybody's backs like no one else has a part in it, _what you are_ is a fool."

The blond gripped his shoulders, pout narrowing to a frown.

"What did you expect me to say?" Kurogane asked. "That you were the Snow Fox? The way you've been dropping clues, I thought you wanted me to know that."

If he'd been trying to hide it, he shouldn't have made snow on a tropical island.

Fai's ice-slick smile slipped into place. "And you believe me?"

"I don't care if you were or not." Kurogane combed his fingers through golden hair that was finer than the silk on the bed, the way no seafaring man's hair had a right to be. Fai's neck tensed around his breath as he tried too hard not to shy away or to lean into the caress. "It doesn't change anything between us. It doesn't change how your excuses for taking me to bed instead of killing me keep getting thinner. And in case you forgot, your first one was, 'We don't want to crowd the other prisoners in the brig.' Thinner than that ain't easy."

"There's nothing _between us_, lover. You looked good. I fucked you. I reserve the right to do it again. I don't like things more complicated than that."

"_Then give me back my coat._"

Slowly, the pirate drew a metal lash out of his sleeve, its tail pulling whispers across his back and down the other arm. The sting of body-warmed wire tickled Kurogane's skin as Fai coiled it in his fist and set it on the table.

"I've gotten attached. To the coat."

"Then I guess after I leave you too sweaty and senseless to stop me tonight, I'll take it. That can be your excuse next time you decide you want me."

Honesty cracked through the blond's grin, then a laugh. "Tonight?" he asked, glancing outside at mid-afternoon sunlight that seemed to melt the unsuspecting bard's music on the breeze. His Majesty loosened up as he chuckled, and didn't seem to notice Kurogane slipping an arm around his waist, nor curling hand into hand. "You've got confidence in your stamina."

"That makes two of us."

Kurogane bent to tongue the hollow of his pirate's ear, tightening his arms around his lover's shuddering body. With a gasp, Fai clutched his bicep. Kurogane felt the instinct to run from the closeness shoot through his lover, like it'd done so often today, and he felt how fast his lover mastered it, playing his grip to push himself onto the table. His haste sent knives clattering to the floor. Neither of them stopped to clean up the mess.

If Kurogane allowed it, those long, inviting legs would hold him prisoner, but he hadn't come to this island to get played. He pulled away from the table while the blond was off-balance, dragging him onto the open floor. Even so, Fai landed on his toes without a stumble, graceful as a leaf from a tree. Skin to skin, their bodies moved like a key in a lock, falling into step with the tune playing outside.

"Are you dancing with me?" the Pirate King scoffed.

If you could call their lust-soaked sway by fancy a word like that. But Kurogane cozied his arm around the blond's waist anyway and curled their entwined hands by Fai's cheek. His partner froze, only for a second, then the pirate pinched his ass and glared.

Pulling the offending hand back up, Kurogane whispered, "You said I was spending too much time fucking you. Is this a more 'flattering picture of my intentions'?"

"You clearly have no idea what this song is about."

"What makes you say that?" he asked, hearing the man on the beach croon, '_Heych zeybayey der heqyeqt wejwed nedared_.' Nothing like what he'd studied to talk to the Chizetans, true, or like the words of anywhere he'd been. But he saw no reason to admit it.

Blue eyes twinkled through his bluff. "You want to dance to a song about a man who forswears dancing forever after his lighthearted behavior earns his lover's wrath? Honestly, Kuro-sama! The things you do!" Clasping Kurogane's shoulder, the pirate sang, "_Edab tenha cheyezy aset kh bedset khewahed amed..._ 'The truth so unlovely: naught but torment to be had.'"

Fai dropped his head against Kurogane's neck, hiding his face, but not before Kurogane saw pain sneak into his smile.

"I guess, for me, it's all right," he whispered, so softly that someone without ninja training might not have heard. Their embrace wasn't any heavier, Kurogane knew. The air felt thick with gravity anyway. And the more he thought his plan to give the pirate a fight he wouldn't run from had backfired, the more his blood told him this was right where he needed to be.

"Hey..."

"I'm not going to tell you what I want with Sakura-chan, you know."

He hadn't expected his answers to come easy. Tucking that away, Kurogane murmured, "I never asked." He'd find that out in other ways.

"You've been trying to seduce me ever since you kissed me in my quarters." The cheer in his voice sounded a little too forced. "If it's not to loosen my lips, what are you after?"

The pirate stood still, holding them to ground as the music died. There had to be an answer that'd put the blond off his guard. Kurogane told the truth instead.

"You."

He wasn't entirely at ease with how the word choked in his throat. It sounded like he meant something other than hunting down the Pirate King the way any ninja would want to if he could. Like there was more to this than a pretty face, skill in the sheets, and a few secrets.

He didn't want that complication any more than than his companion did.

Although maybe he feared it less. The man who'd told him not to fall in love was so still he seemed to shake. Then Fai gripped the shirt hanging over Kurogane's chest, knuckles turning bone-white on his fists, and gasped hard into his shoulder. Kurogane barely had time to wonder what he was running from when the pirate said, "Shut up," in the calmest tone he'd managed all day.

"Look-"

Teeth raked his lips into a kiss, and Fai curved his back just so - tempting Kurogane's hand down his skin before sense could warn him off. "Conversation. Over," his lover purred, close enough to taste the vibrations.

Sometimes you had to cede the battle to win the war.

The blond pulled him toward the wall. Kurogane answered with a push. The slam of their bodies against the plaster rattled the carvings hung on the wall, and one piece of art crashed to the ground. Maybe more. Hard to say for sure when his focus was on a fine neck and finer moans. It was just as easy to slip into the dream that this was safe or sane as it had been on the beach. Nothing about his lover's caresses gave him reason to pause.

So his first warning was the click of a latch.

Feeling metal pressed to his solar plexus, Kurogane laughed into Fai's skin. Thin, not sharp - probably the spring baton the pirate had compressed down to fit in his pocket.

"Ready to rethink that decision to trust me, lover?"

"Not until you strike without telling me first."

Fai clicked the release on his weapon, his thin baton springing out to a full two feet. If Kurogane hadn't shoved the man's hand aside, it would've rammed into his gut hard enough to bruise. Not to kill, though. The pirate tried to push him face-first into the table at the same time, but one counterspin later, Kurogane had him in a lock - arm behind his back, chest to the wall, minus one whippy metal stick.

Tracing the curve of the man's ear with the butt of his weapon, Kurogane savored the heavy-breathing push of ribs against his chest. "Is this what you want?" he murmured into the pirate's hair.

The shadows didn't quite hide a smirk full of teeth and no remorse.

"Well, that depends, Kuro-rin. Do you know how to use it?"

"Hands on the wall, where I can see 'em."

Kurogane stepped back, giving Fai the space to move. As ordered, the blond pushed his hands up the wall. His body stretched in their wake, each bend shown to best advantage. His teasing eyes were just like Kurogane recalled from their first tussle on the _Dragon of Heaven_.

Had it only been two weeks? They both danced like they'd known the steps all their lives. Pushing aside the tail of a jacket that never should have mattered so much, he traced the point of the baton over the perfect ass his lover was shaking at him. Tapped lightly once, twice. Then sent the thin bit of metal whistling through the air till it struck with a crack, and heard the pirate gasp. A sharp, red line rose out of his skin.

The second went to his thighs. Fai's closed eyes looked like he was in heaven as he panted against the wall, moaning when the third strike crossed the last in a red X over his legs.

"Are you going to tell me how bad I've been?"

"I think we both know." Another brush before another thwack. Sweat caught the sunlight, gleaming on muscles that tensed and tempted. Whatever else this man was, he was lovely to see. "And you like this too much for it to be punishment. But it'll do to get you warmed up."

"Mmm. Yes, please."

The blond's legs trembled under the next stroke. His hands dug into the wall, steadying him while he got his knees back. Another ten, and it looked like the wall might not do it anymore. Kurogane slid the baton onto the table and caressed the lines blooming out of the pirate's skin.

Most people would still be feeling that days from now. But most people, if they'd had their face laid open in a brawl, would've shown some small trace of it two weeks later. The Pirate King didn't even have the pink flush of newly healed skin on his cheek. He was unmarked.

"Here's what it'll be," Kurogane said as his enemy and lover rode into his touch. "You're gonna keep me entertained long enough to see these heal."

"I thought this was punishment, Kuro-puu."

"Because I won't come - and I won't let you come - until your ass is a blank slate."

Smirking over his shoulder, Fai dropped his hand to caress Kurogane's hip. "Sounds like a challenge. Do I pick your penalty if you're not up to that?"

"Won't be an issue."

"Any other unreasonable demands before I start entertaining?"

Kurogane pressed his lips to the back of Fai's neck, whispering, "Drop the coat."

With a laugh the blond fell into his arms, so high on euphoria he didn't flinch at being held close. Far from it, he cozied against Kurogane's chest and pecked his cheek - then bit his chin.

"But. I. Don't. Want. To!"

Sparks jumped through Kurogane's skin everywhere they touched. It was going to be a challenge, all right, trying not to lose control for however long, but by the time he was done, his Pirate King would want relief just as much as he did.

"We're playing for keeps, Your Majesty. The stakes go in the pot before we start."

"So if this is my stake," the sea cat asked, pulling the coat tight around his chest, "what's your skin in the game? No fair playing if you've got nothing to lose."

"If you're the one who can stand up and walk away when we're done, I won't follow. I'll go back home before I come find you again."

A glimmer of calculation cut through the ecstatic haze in those two blue eyes, cooking into amusement as Fai pulled him by the shirt tails. They teetered onto the edge of the bed. The heat of his kiss said he was finally getting all of Fai's attention, and the gleam of one alabaster shoulder was suddenly the shape of victory. The whole blue mess of that damn coat slipped to the floor while his lover pulled his fingernails down Kurogane's chest.

That shameless nakedness would've made an ancient sculptor weep, and every inch of it was his to take. Even the golden key hanging from Fai's neck was warm, pressed between their bodies as the pirate purred in his ear.

"You're on, Kuro-sama."

~/~

One thing Kamui damn well hoped was that his fellow officers were straightening out Chizeta properly, not messing around, so they could track him to this gray, miserable place and save him from the nightmare of being stranded with only a _happy ninja_ for company. After more than three hours on a moss-and-seal-infested, ass-freezing rock, watching his red-haired co-maroonee _skip_ from one beach to another, Kamui wondered if he'd ever get Hikaru to understand that she, as a ninja, was his enemy, or that only one of them could take home the prize. Assuming it was here, and they could find it. They had no real information on what the so-called "orb" would look like, so that was _entirely and completely_ an assumption.

At least the sun had risen half an hour ago, after two hours of taunting him with hazy, pre-dawn luminesence. Real light was a distinct improvement over darkness.

"Well, I don't see anything here, either!" the ninja piped, mindless of the icy seas splashing around her shoes.

Kamui leapt onto a boulder, scanning the barrenness. "There's nothing to see. You're sure you sensed energy from this direction?"

"Well, some kind of energy is spread all over. Here's where it's strongest. Without a reference, I don't know it's the orb or not."

He was not going to kill the ninja. He was not going to kill the ninja.

He didn't know why he wasn't going to kill the ninja, but he wasn't going to do it.

They were cooperating.

Hikaru squinted over the eastern sea. "What do you know? There's a glow in this direction, too, like that spot out west! What do you think it is?"

What - or who - had caused the lights rising like a tower of green ribbon in the middle of the western horizon was a mystery Kamui didn't want to consider until he had a ship to sail. Right now, he wanted to know what the hell the Ninja Union taught, and how.

"You can see an aurora when the sun's up?!" he asked.

The ninja blinked at him. "Can't you?"

How was he supposed to answer that? Kamui glared at the girl, hoping he wouldn't have to explain, but she pointed southeast on the empty horizon like nothing was out of the ordinary.

"It's right there!"

"It's. Invisible. The sunlight is too strong."

"Well, sure. I mean... I know most pirates can't, but you said you spotted me and Fuu-chan and Umi-chan when we were invisible, right? The technique's the same. It's all dampened light and contrast."

Despite his desire to think she was making a joke at his expense, her eyes looked honest. Too honest. More honest than a ninja should have been able to manage.

What would he lose by trying?

Breathing out slowly, he refocused his eyes where she was pointing. At first, there was nothing but the sky and surf, but soon flashes of green were flickering into another glowing column. It hurt his head trying to focus on them, but there they were, for as long as he could stand working his vision that way. Right on the horizon.

Or... it wasn't quite on the horizon, was it? When he looked close, he thought he saw the line of the ocean's edge running behind the weaving ribbons.

"Hikaru!" he yelled, jumping down from his boulder. "You can see that better than I can-"

"So you can see it! Not even all Union ninja can do that! I bet if you train-"

"_I don't want any ninja training!_ But I need you to get a bearing for me."

She resettled her coat on her shoulders, squinting from one end of the shoreline to the other. "What kind of bearing?"

"Just... umm... hang on a second." Kamui found true East on his compass, then nudged the ninja's feet until she was lined up. He ignored her grin. "The aurora's not moving, right?"

"Right."

"Perfect. Point at the center of where it's glowing."

"Like this?"

The ninja raised her arm and pointed a finger toward the invisible light. With more care than he'd ever charted anything in his life, Kamui checked her line of sight against his compass. Swiveling the heading arrow on the top case until it was on target, he checked the rough degree measurement, then pushed the fine measure dial to count off partial degrees.

"Okay. Now I'm moving you thirty yards South," he told her.

He pushed her by the shoulders as he measured off the beach with paces. From their new position, he measured again. His breath stuck in his throat once the dials were in place.

"Three tenths of a degree shift," Kamui choked. He couldn't be completely precise like this, but it was close. He thought back to his rangefinder charts. "That glow is no aurora. It's... it's about three and a quarter miles offshore. It's close." He glanced across the rocks and moss to the west. "We need to check the other one."

Hikaru flashed a smile. "Race you."

She shot off in a red streak before he could say yes or no, although she didn't cheat like ninja normally did. No flicker-stepping, no turning invisible. She leapt around boulders and through narrow passways faster than most people could sprint, but not so fast Kamui couldn't keep her in sight when he ran full tilt. He'd almost caught up when they hit the other beach almost half an hour later.

And he didn't refuse the canteen of fresh coconut water she offered when they stopped.

Once they'd caught their breaths, he lined her up facing west. As stupid as it was to use a ninja as a measuring device, he had to use what was at hand. The shift on this side was smaller - harder to gauge, but he thought he had it right.

"A tenth of a degree. Maybe a hair more. That one's about... eight and a half miles out."

"They're marking something around the island? That might be the energy I feel."

"Some kind of boundary, I think. And if we look at the center of it, maybe we'll find what we're looking for." Kamui pulled some charcoal from his pocket and scratched out the direction from the western glow to the eastern glow on the rocks at his feet. For this, he'd need diagrams. He didn't have Subaru's skill for navigation. Nobody but Subaru did.

"It's worth a shot," the ninja answered. "But you need three points for an exact center right? If we're figuring on a circle, anyway. With just two, you can't be sure how big the circle is. You'll get a whole line of centers."

Kamui sketched his trail of equidistant potential centers - a perpendicular at the midpoint between the two glowing areas. It looked on his rough map to point a little east of north, and to lie a little less than a tenth of a mile off the coast at its nearest point. "It's better than nothing. We'll each pick a direction and check the seafloor. If we don't find it before we start to freeze-"

"Why don't we get a third reading from the glow off the North coast?"

He paused.

And stared at her.

And reminded himself again that he'd decided not to kill the ninja.

Fucking cheats - seeing things, and expecting him to see them, too. She couldn't have mentioned a third aurora that he wouldn't have noticed because it was fucking invisible?!

"Right. North. _Lead the way_."

He couldn't wait for all this running around and pointing red-headed ninjas at glowing spots on the horizon to drop them in a near-frozen spot of salt water where they'd probably find absolutely nothing. Or might find a mystical artifact made by Clow Reed, which could be worse. Clow Reed rarely made things better.

They measured, he charted, and he had no idea what he was hoping for as Hikaru pulled an actual collapsible life raft out of her storage gem. If he never met another ninja and their questionable relationship with physics ever again, that day would come too soon.

Boats. Stored in nowhere space. That was just annoying.

They pulled off their shoes and set their coats aside. "This is as close as we'll get," he told Hikaru, "but we're looking at a twenty-yard radius, more or less, given the margin of error. If we don't find it in an hour, we'll figure out somewhere else to look."

"Let's not waste time. I'll go first."

"Fine."

He held back from telling her to be careful in the cold water, torn between the knowledge that she was his enemy and the understanding that her resources might keep him alive until his ship came. The fact that she was unnervingly endearing _in no way entered into it_ - he was perfectly aware that she was dangerous behind the innocent expression.

While he debated it, she slipped into the ocean and took a few deep breaths, bobbing her face in the water to get used to the chill. So, clearly she didn't need his help anyway.

She dove, straight down. The water wasn't the clearest he'd ever seen, and soon too little light penetrated the waves for him to see her kicking. Peering over the side, he tried refocusing his vision again. This time, he had a better feel for what he was trying to do. It hadn't occurred to him that he was doing anything but seeing normally when he tried to glimpse ninja hiding. Now he could feel the weight of effort in his eyes, and he could just make out a hazy figure swimming in a spiral below, far past what he should have been able to see.

It didn't matter if it was a ninja technique. Pirates used anything that gave them the advantage. The code specifically encouraged it. And seeing invisible things was, without a doubt, an advantage. Turning invisible would be, too, but he wouldn't stoop to that. Attacking head-on was better.

Learning to see invisible things was just leveling the field.

Hikaru spiraled out from the boat's shadow along the sea floor, surfacing every few rounds to take a breath. Half an hour later, she swam back, shivering, for Kamui's help getting into the boat. He pulled her on board and settled her heavy coat over her shoulders. She made herself a tiny fireball to hold close to her chest.

"It's too bad Umi-chan's not here," she said through chattering teeth (while, for reasons he couldn't explain, Kamui rubbed her hair dry with a towel). "She can swim way better than me, and you could drop her in the snow in a bathing suit and she wouldn't freeze."

Umi. Probably the blue one, who shot icicles and made whirlpools in thin air.

"You're immune to fire, and she's immune to cold? What's your green friend do?"

He supposed he was no one to talk. Karen didn't burn, either, Sorata couldn't be electrocuted, and you couldn't drown Yuuto no matter how much he asked for it.

The red-haired girl curled into the coat. "Fuu-chan? However bad the winds are, or how rarefied the air gets, she can always breathe. That, and her hair never tangles."

"I'll have to ask Lord Aoki if he can do that. The breathing thing, I mean. He doesn't have enough hair to tangle. Are you... I mean, do you... do you need anything before I start?"

He might not like ninja on principle, but he didn't want her to _die_.

She pulled a small charcoal stove with three iron legs out of the gem on her hand and lit it with a fireball. Shooting him a bright smile, she said, "I'll be fine. Thanks for asking!"

"Umm... Great. I'll just... go then."

"Good luck!"

The ninja waved. He splashed into the ocean and tried not to hyperventilate from the cold. Once he was alone and swimming, it was easier to clear his mind. All he had to do was look for whatever they were trying to find. He swam to where Hikaru left off, circling the water and coming up for air when he had to. It was too cold to think of anything else.

A half-buried shape caught his eye - too many right angles to be anything but a box, and too cleanly maroon despite sitting on the sea floor to be anything but magic. Normal debris should've shown signs of weathering if it'd been sitting here long enough for the sand to edge in around it. Kamui surfaced for one more breath, then dove for the box.

It was marked with Clow Reed's circle.

Fucking Clow Reed. There just had to be an actual thing here, didn't there? The god of mischief couldn't even leave a man the right to complain that he'd been transported halfway around the world to chase fairy tales that were never real. Oh no! He had to go and make them actually real things that existed, throwing everything that had ever made sense in this world into ruin! Kamui could've left the box there, but either the ninja would insist on diving again and would find it, or they'd go home empty-handed and Fai would know he was lying, and whatever happened in either case would be worse than just taking the damn box and having done.

It didn't seem right that something so damn important should be as light as this was, either. As he swam back to the boat, he could barely feel it in the crook of his arm. Clattering on the metal deck of the ninja's boat, it seemed like nothing more than debris. If he had any good luck whatsoever, that debris would be the communicator orb he'd been sent to find, and the means to work it would be obvious.

"You found it!" Hikaru said, helping him onto the boat.

"I found _something_."

And he would have objected to the way she toweled him dry and put his coat on him if he'd been able to move without shivering so hard his hands were halfway to falling off his arms. He would never admit to liking a ninja, but the ability to be close to her hot-burning charcoal stove right now was somewhat useful.

"If you had a stove the whole time, why were you heating up rocks on shore?"

"Well, I only had one. And we should open the box!"

The instant she flipped the lid open, they both felt it. Energy like a crashing wave rushed from every direction into the box, where a simple silver sphere lay in purple velvet (that was mysteriously dry when any normal box should've been soaked through with seawater). The ninja's face turned hard as she looked toward the horizon. Kamui checked the west, too. Any glimmer of the aurora was gone. Whatever perimeter this thing had been maintaining, it was gone now.

"Let's get back to shore," Kamui muttered.

"Yeah."

They couldn't row fast enough for his taste. As soon as they made land, he grabbed the box before the ninja could pull it back into her storage gem along with the boat. Something about the air smelled like a storm. He didn't like it. It felt like impending doom, and whatever Yuzuriha had to say about it, his senses of impending doom were always justified.

Life was full of doom, that was all. If he could call the _Dragon of Heaven_, maybe they could get some backup and a trip off this island before they died.

Him and the ninja.

He hated today.

While Hikaru blasted more warmth into their trusty fire-boulder, Kamui slipped the silver sphere out of the box. It transformed in his hand into a mahogany writing pad, complete with a silver pen and a thick pile of paper.

As feathers rained out of the sky. Naturally.

The ninja stared over his head, craning her neck higher and higher as if trying to find a source for all the loose plumage, something Kamui had long since given up. "So, that happens to you a lot? Is there, like... a reason?"

"The universe likes drama?" he grumbled. On the paper, he wrote a quick request for help alongside notes on their latitude and longitude. "Don't ninja have atmospheric effects?"

"I... don't think so. I'm pretty sure we just have techniques. That do what we say."

"Then I'm glad I'm not a ninja - _feathers make everything better_."

They were annoying as fuck, actually, but like hell he was going to admit that.

"Eagle doesn't have feathers, though. I'll have to ask him when he shows up."

He wasn't going to admit that he'd never seen another pirate make feathers, either, or speculate on why only Subaru and the Barrows-guard caused sakura petals to fall out of nowhere. Blowing away a feather that'd landed on his nose, Kamui slid the pen back into the holder and pulled off the paper with his message.

Then he realized what name she'd used. He knew that name. And it sounded like she wasn't talking about a ninja. "Eagle?" he asked. "You can't mean-"

His voice dropped out as the paper in his hand folded itself into an origami dragon. Even for something Clow Reed had designed, that was weird. It flew into the air, turning a loop in the sky as it flapped off toward the East. He didn't like the chances that a flying piece of paper would make it to Chizeta any time soon, but he watched in silence anyway. Besides, what would he say to his companion? Ask if Satsuki's rear-admiral, the White King of Autozam, had run off with Hikaru when he disappeared four years ago? Eagle Vision, hanging around with ninja, right under their noses in Hundhammeren? More likely, Hikaru's Eagle was a ninja who'd trained to infiltrate pirates, like fucking Kurogane had done.

And as his paper dragon flew over the rocks, it dissolved entirely.

"Fuck. Do you think I did it wrong?"

"Here, let me see!"

He laid the writing pad in Hikaru's outstretched hand, where it ceased to be a writing pad. Its shape melted away, and curtains of fire that shot up around the ninja, miraculously burning nothing in their path.

Kamui narrowed his eyes at the girl. "You were saying?"

"I always thought that was burn-off from my spells!"

"Well, I guess everybody learned something today."

"I can't wait to show Umi-chan and Fuu-chan!"

"_Can we start by getting off this damn island?_"

She turned over a white-lacquered device in her hands. Instead of a writing pad, the orb had become a headband with painted metal ear-covers shaped like white-and-red riceballs.

"Lady Yuuko made headsets like this once," the ninja said, opening one riceball and turning some dials inside. She pulled the thing onto her head. "They transmitted voices. _Knight One to Knight Two and Knight Three. Come in, Knight Two and Knight Three... Come in..._" She shook her head. "I read that the Dioscuri's orbs let them talk no matter where they were in the world, but all I've got is dead air. Maybe someone local can hear?"

Kamui looked at the horizon where he thought he saw something moving, and the doom floating in the air got heavier on his shoulders. "I hope the locals are friendly."

"You sense someone, too?"

"If that box had a barrier to keep them back, they'll come in fast now it's gone. We should get ready to fight." They huddled close to the warmed boulder, breaking the chill the sea had put in their bones. "And just so we're clear... me teaming up with you to fight off attackers does not mean I've forgotten we're competing for the orb. Only one of us can take it home."

"It could go with whoever manages to get through to their people," she suggested.

"And what if neither of us get through?! No. I have a sword, you have a sword, we're having a swordfight. Done."

"But I don't want to hurt you!" Hikaru frowned, with an expression that was disturbingly more like her serious face than her fluffy face. "Maybe we could arm wrestle?"

He chomped back the grunt of agreement that almost slipped past his cold-weakened defenses. Because it would be stupid for him to agree to arm wrestle a ninja over his mission objective, and even stupider to think that maybe hurting this particular ninja would be a downside.

They would definitely not be arm wrestling.

And there was no way in which he did not hate today.


End file.
